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RIYADH: As Israel’s assault on Gaza continues, a growing number of cultural figures are using their global platform to demand a ceasefire, speak out against alleged war crimes, and support Palestinian civilians.

Almost 22 months since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza, artists, writers, musicians, and actors who once remained silent have joined growing calls for a ceasefire and condemnation of what many now openly describe as genocide.

This year alone, open letters signed by hundreds of artists, authors and filmmakers have made headlines, demanding action from political leaders and calling out what they describe as the dehumanization of Palestinians.

From high-profile actors to music stars and children’s entertainers, here are just some of the well-known figures who have taken a stand.

Ariana Grande

Pop singer Ariana Grande joined a growing number of artists speaking out about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On Sunday, July 17, she posted two Instagram stories backing the Red Line for Gaza campaign, which demands unrestricted access to humanitarian aid.

In one story, Grande shared a message that read: “Starving people to death is a red line. The Israeli government is crossing this red line before our eyes.”

Angelina Jolie

In April this year, American actress Angelina Jolie, who spent over 20 years as a goodwill ambassador and special envoy for the UNHCR, reaffirmed her support for Gaza by sharing a Medecins Sans Frontiers report on Gaza in an Instagram story.

The report described the situation in Gaza as a “mass grave for Palestinians and those helping them.”

But Jolie has been an advocate for Palestinian people’s rights since the conflict began in October 2023. She wrote in an Instagram post on Oct. 28 that year: “What happened in Israel is an act of terror.

“But that cannot justify the innocent lives lost in bombing a civilian population in Gaza that has nowhere to go, no access to food or water, no possibility of evacuation and not even the basic human right to cross a border to seek refuge.”

Susan Sarandon

In an Artists4Ceasefire post on Instagram in February, American actress Susan Sarandon was quoted as saying: “Palestinians have the right to return, rebuild, and live in freedom on their land. 

“Gaza was destroyed with our weapons — now Trump wants to ethnically cleanse Palestinian survivors to create resort properties for his developer friends and family.

“We must rise up together, use everything we have, to finally end the suffering our government inflicts. Peace and justice are for all of us, or for none of us. What we allow in Gaza, we allow everywhere.”

Mark Ruffalo

In February 2024, at the Directors Guild of America Awards in Beverly Hills, American actor Mark Ruffalo called for a ceasefire in Gaza. He wore two pins on his jacket and told the entertainment news website Deadline that the pins represented “peace lilies and Artists for Ceasefire.”

Ruffalo said: “We’ve come to understand this bombing isn’t working, we’re not going to bomb our way to peace, and all we’re saying is, what’s wrong with giving a ceasefire a chance?”

Piers Morgan

British journalist Piers Morgan has publicly called on US President Donald Trump to intervene and demand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu end the war in Gaza.

In a post on X in June, Morgan wrote: “Now is the time for you to tell (Netanyahu) to end this terrible war … and stop the incessant daily slaughter of civilians.”

Once a staunch defender of Israel’s right to retaliate after the Oct. 7 attack, Morgan has since shifted tone. Speaking with Mehdi Hasan on his show, he said he could “resist no more” in criticizing Israel’s actions, describing them as the “starvation of the people.”

Gigi and Bella Hadid

Supermodel sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid have donated a combined $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts. The funds were to be equally distributed among four organizations: HEAL Palestine, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, World Central Kitchen, and UNRWA.

The Hadid sisters, whose father is Palestinian, have been outspoken advocates for the Palestinian cause, with Gigi expressing deep empathy for Palestinians living under occupation and emphasizing her hopes for peace that exclude harm to any Jewish person.

“I have deep empathy and heartbreak for the Palestinian struggle and life under occupation, it’s a responsibility I hold daily,” Gigi said in a statement following the Oct. 7 attack.

“I also feel a responsibility to my Jewish friends to make it clear, as I have before: While I have hopes and dreams for Palestinians, none of them include the harm of a Jewish person.”

Dua Lipa

British-Kosovan singer Dua Lipa publicly condemned Israel’s military operations in Gaza, calling them “Israeli genocide,” The Guardian reported in May 2024.

Sharing a graphic from the Artists4Ceasefire campaign alongside the widely used hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah, Lipa wrote: “Burning children alive can never be justified. The whole world is mobilizing to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”

Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye

In April 2024, Canadian singer and songwriter and UN World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye allocated another $2 million from his XO Humanitarian Fund toward WFP’s humanitarian response efforts in Gaza. 

The funding built on the original $2.5 million that Tesfaye directed to WFP’s Gaza response in December 2023.

Amir Khan

In the days after the Oct. 7 attack, British-Pakistani former boxer Amir Khan said people are often “scared” to come out in support of Palestine, fearing backlash. He took to X to say that “Palestinian lives matter” and that he has “never been scared to speak” his mind.

“My entire career, my aim was to become a world champion and use my fame and influence to make a positive change in the world,” he said. “I’ve never been scared to speak my mind and stand up for the downtrodden.

“Recently when Ukraine was attacked by Russia, I personally flew to Poland to support the Ukrainian refugees who had been displaced by the effects of war.  

“So many people spoke up about these atrocities, but as the world watches what is unfolding in Palestine, I see so many of my peers, friends and colleagues who are remaining silent. Why?” 

Renee Rapp

American singer and actress Renee Rapp used her acceptance speech at the 35th annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles to call for an “immediate” and “permanent ceasefire” in Gaza. She urged the audience to use their voices to advocate not only for themselves but also for their friends and those who cannot advocate for themselves.

Nicola Coughlan

Irish actress Nicola Mary Coughlan regularly shares posts on social media showing support for Gaza. In one post from November 2023, she wrote: “Let no one — no person, no news organization, no government gaslight you into thinking that basic human empathy is controversial.”

In another post in May 2025, she called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and wrote: “I think it deeply important that people speak up in this moment. No child, no matter where they are from, their religion, anything should be starved to death by a government.

“This is a war crime, plain and simple. The US and UK governments who are aiding and abetting this need to be held to account. This is happening with our tax money and we have a moral obligation to tell them we will not let this happen.”

Riz Ahmed 

In October 2023, British-Pakistani actor and musician Riz Ahmed called Israel’s strikes “morally indefensible war crimes.”

He urged the public and leaders to urgently speak out to prevent further loss of innocent lives, highlighting the deep pain and suffering experienced by both Israelis and Palestinians under long-standing occupation and ongoing violence. 

Ahmed has been part of movements and public letters urging respect for human rights and coexistence, implicitly supporting peace initiatives like a two-state solution.

He has been involved in calls for peace in the Middle East alongside other celebrities, referencing “a two-state solution for peace-loving Israelis and Palestinians” as part of broader advocacy.

Zadie Smith

A year after publishing an essay in The New Yorker critical of campus protests, British novelist Zadie Smith became one of the most prominent signatories of an open letter by UK and Irish authors condemning Israel’s actions.

“The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations,” the letter stated.

Benedict Cumberbatch

The British actor was among 300 UK public figures who signed an open letter to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging the UK to end its “complicity in the horrors in Gaza.”

The letter, organized by campaign group Choose Love, stated: “Right now, children in Gaza are starving while food and medicine sit just minutes away, blocked at the border. Words won’t feed Palestinian children — we need action. Every single one of Gaza’s 2.1 million people is at risk of starvation, as you read this.”

Steve Coogan

After signing the UK entertainment industry letter, British actor Steve Coogan publicly read the names of children killed in Gaza at a Westminster vigil. He told Sky News: “They’re all children who had lives, who had nothing to do with the conflict … this has to stop.”

As the “mass, indiscriminate killing of innocent people” has continued, he added, “more and more people are realizing that this has to stop.”

Juliette Binoche

Initially reluctant to sign a Cannes Film Festival letter denouncing genocide in Gaza, Binoche faced backlash for her silence. After dedicating her festival opening remarks to a slain Gazan journalist — without naming Israel — she reversed course and signed the letter the next day. 

More than 370 actors and filmmakers, including high-profile Hollywood figures such as Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, and Guillermo del Toro signed the May open letter condemning the film industry’s silence on what they described as “genocide” in Gaza.

Malala Yousafzai

The Nobel laureate wrote on X: “It makes me sick to my stomach to see Israel’s cruelty and brutality in Gaza … I call on every world leader to put maximum pressure on the Israeli government to end this genocide and protect civilians.”

Thom Yorke

The Radiohead frontman, once criticized for performing in Tel Aviv, posted on Instagram to denounce Netanyahu for the “horrific blockade of aid to Gaza,” adding that the “excuse of self-defense has long worn thin.”

Rachel Accurso

The children’s entertainer behind the successful YouTube brand, Ms Rachel, told NPR in May: “I would risk everything, and I will risk my career over and over to stand up for (Gazan children). It’s all about the kids for me.”

Dan Reynolds

During a Milan concert, Imagine Dragons’ Reynolds wore a Palestinian flag after a fan tossed it on stage. The act drew renewed attention to the band’s controversial earlier decision to perform in Israel — and highlighted shifting stances within the music world.

Paloma Faith

Faith delivered a speech at a protest outside the Israeli Embassy in London in March, vowing she “won’t fall silent until Palestine is free.”

She said: “When the ceasefire was called, like all of you I was relieved but fearful that it would not last.

“I know that Israel has violated every ceasefire agreement it has ever signed, but even with that knowledge and that fear, even after watching months of that genocide, I wasn’t prepared for these new depths of brutality to which Israel has descended.”

She added: “A child is slaughtered every eight minutes, we should stand in silence for a minute for every child killed in Gaza in this genocide but if we did that, we’d be silent for over 300 hours so I won’t fall silent.”

She has also appeared in a campaign urging boycotts of Israeli goods.

Hannah Einbinder

While accepting a Human Rights Campaign award in LA in March, the Hacks star said: “I am horrified by the Israeli government’s massacre of well over 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza.”

“I am ashamed and infuriated that this mass murder is funded by our American tax dollars. It should not be controversial to say that we should all be against murdering civilians.”

Andrew Garfield

On the Happy Sad Confused podcast in October 2024, American actor Garfield was blunt: “We should be putting our energy towards something that actually matters — maybe the lives of Palestinians in Gaza right now.

“Maybe that’s where we put our hearts and our energy in, and oppressed, anyone suffering under the weight of the horrors of our world right now, anyone who doesn’t have a choice in living lives of dignity. That’s where our energy should be going right now.”

Marcia Cross

The “Desperate Housewives” actress has consistently called for a ceasefire on social media. “It’s about the land. And extermination of the Palestinian people. Sick,” she wrote in October 2024. 

In February, she posted a quote from Iraqi-American lawyer and poet Tina Al-Khersan on Instagram, which read: “I’m struggling to comprehend how to live among people with eyes that don’t water, hearts that don’t flinch, and voices that remain silent.”

John Legend

Speaking to Mehdi Hasan in October 2024, Legend criticized US aid to Israel. “We shouldn’t be writing blank checks to any country … It makes me very frustrated at how we easily dehumanize certain people.” He has long linked racial justice in the US to Palestinian liberation.

Javier Bardem

In 2014, Bardem denounced Israeli attacks in the Spanish newspaper El Diario, facing backlash that lasted years. In 2024, he returned to the issue at the San Sebastian Film Festival, criticizing the Oct. 7 attack, as well as the “massive punishment that the Palestinian population is enduring.”

Speaking to AP after the event, Bardem said: “I believe that we can and must help bring peace. If we take a different approach, then we will get different results.

“The security and prosperity of Israel and the health and future of a free Palestine will only be possible through a culture of peace, coexistence and respect.”

JJ (Johannes Pietsch)

After winning Eurovision 2025, JJ criticized Israel’s inclusion in the competition. “It’s very disappointing to see Israel still participating. I would like Eurovision to be held without Israel in Vienna next year,” the Austrian-Filipino singer told Spanish newspaper El Pais.

“But the ball is in the European Broadcasting Union’s court. We, the artists, can only speak out on the matter.”
 

MANILA: Home to several endemic species like the endangered Philippine pangolin, the province of Palawan has faced threats to its biodiversity for decades from illegal wildlife trafficking to deforestation.
Now the island’s forests and communities are vulnerable to mining for its nickel, with the Philippines ramping up operations to meet global demand for metals and minerals to support the green energy transition.
“When you mine nickel, you have to remove the topsoil and forest vegetation, displacing wildlife and causing deforestation,” said Grizelda Mayo-Anda, director of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center, a legal group promoting environmental rights.
In response, Palawan Gov. Dennis Socrates signed a 50-year moratorium in March on all applications for mining agreements and exploration permits in the province.
But Mayo-Anda said it remains to be seen if the ordinance will be implemented following a change in provincial leadership after elections in May.
The Philippines is the world’s second largest producer and biggest exporter of nickel, which is used in batteries for electric vehicles, and is critical in the transition to green technologies like wind turbines and solar panels. The International Energy Agency has predicted a 65 percent increase in demand for nickel by the end of the decade.
Palawan has 11 active mines, three of which are large-scale nickel mines spanning four towns, but companies planning to open new mines now cannot get the necessary endorsement from the local government.
Considered by some to be the last ecological frontier of the Philippines, Palawan holds almost half of the country’s old-growth forest, 30 percent of its remaining mangroves and 40 percent of its coral reefs, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Nickel in the Philippines is primarily mined from laterite deposits commonly found near the surface and extracted through open-pit mining methods, and Mayo-Anda said thousands of trees have been cleared in Palawan for mining.

A study by Conservation International, a nonprofit environmental group, on Palawan’s Mt. Mantalingahan protected landscape found in 2008 that the $5 billion value of its ecosystem goods and services — such as clean water, carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation — far outweighed the value of minerals, then placed at 15 billion pesos ($262 million).
Church resistance
Mayo-Anda, an attorney who has conducted field-based legal advocacy in Palawan for decades, said some farmlands are no longer productive due to disruptions in water cycles and soil erosion she attributed to mining.
“Mining companies may have built schools, tribal halls and roads, but communities, including our politicians, do not have a good cost-benefit analysis of the economic value [of the destruction],” she said.
The local church has stood against new mining activities as well.
“As is often the case, mining companies exploit natural resources, take control and benefit from the natural wealth,” Bishop Socrates Mesiona of the Apostolic Vicariate of Puerto Princesa said.
Bishops in Palawan oppose mining due to its environmental and social impacts that they say could displace communities and affect the poor.
“But the crucial question is whether they have empowered local economies and communities so that when they are gone, the latter can continue to survive decently,” said the bishop.
The three bishops of Palawan, including Mesiona, have also called for a ban on new mining applicants, which number about 68.
“If they are all allowed to operate, then it will surely be the end of Palawan being called ‘the last ecological frontier,’” Mesiona said.
While national law gives local governments the authority to assess mining projects and express concerns, it is unclear whether the national government will approve the new mining applications in Palawan after the moratorium.
A recently publicized ruling of the Supreme Court rejected a 25-year moratorium on large-scale mining imposed by another Philippine province, Occidental Mindoro, citing the limited powers of the local government in regulating mining projects.