U2 Honors Slaughtered Music Fans at Las Vegas Residency

U2 spoke out in support of Israel this weekend at their Las Vegas residency at the MSG Sphere.

The band addressed the ongoing violence in Israel and the recent attacks by Hamas dedicating “Pride (In the Name of Love”) to  hundreds of young music fans killed at a music festival in Israel, referring to them as “stars of David” in rewritten lyrics.

“Sing for our brothers and sisters — who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel,” Bono said. “We sing for those. Our people, our kind of people, music people. Playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them.”

Bono continued, “In the light of what’s happened in Israel and Gaza, a song about non-violence seems somewhat ridiculous, even laughable, but our prayers have always been for peace and for non-violence… But our hearts and our anger, you know where that’s pointed. So sing with us… and those beautiful kids at that music festival.”

Bono changed up the lyrics to the song as well as the April 4th date, singing ““Early morning, Oct. 7, the sun is rising in the desert sky,” he sang. “Stars of David, they took your life but they could not take your pride.”

He repeated the “Could not take your pride” line three times before leading the band into the anthemic chorus.

The attack on music fans by the terrorist group Hamas took place at the Supernova festival, held in the desert in southern Israel in conjunction with the Jewish festival of Sukkot.