Pop star Dua Lipa on Tuesday gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine in which she explained why she is taking a stand politically over the Israel-Hamas war and called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza.
“My existence is kind of political, the fact that I lived in London because my parents left from the war,” the singer, who was born to Albanian parents in London, told the magazine. “I feel for people who have to leave their home. From my experience of being in Kosovo and understanding what war does, no one really wants to leave their home. They do it for protection, to save their family, to look after the people around them, that kind of thing, for a better life. So I feel close to it.”
“My feelings on displaced people [are] very real and raw, and it is a difficult subject to speak about because it’s so divisive,” she added.
“And I have to say this: I don’t condone what Hamas is doing… Every life is precious. I feel so bad for every Israeli life lost and what happened on Oct. 7. At the moment, what we have to look at is how many lives have been lost in Gaza, and the innocent civilians, and the lives that are just being lost. There are just not enough world leaders that are taking a stand and speaking up about the humanitarian crisis that’s happening, the humanitarian ceasefire that has to happen,” the singer told Rolling Stone.
Lipa has in the past been critical of Israel. In 2020, the singer sparked outrage by sharing an anti-Israel and anti-IDF post on Instagram.
"The big bad tough guys of the IDF thoroughly enjoy beating and shooting children," she wrote in that post, before accusing the Israeli government of being "fake Jews" that created Hamas.
In 2021, The New York Times ran a full-page ad from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and the World Values Network accusing Lipa of antisemitism due to her anti-Israel comments. Lipa at the time pushes back against the ad and invited then-Times editor Dean Baquet on to her podcast to discuss the “damaging and potentially dangerous” ad.