A number of Irish celebrities have put their names to an open letter issued by the UK group Choose Love urging British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end Gaza complicity."
Irish figures Alison Oliver, Aisling Bea, Annie Mac, Caitríona Balfe, Charlie Murphy, Chris O'Dowd, Denise Gough, Nicola Coughlan, Ruth Negga, Seamus McGarvey, Siobhán McSweeney, and Tadhg Hickey are all among the more than 300 signatories of the letter.
Other notable signatories include Annie Lennox, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brian Cox, Dua Lipa, Gary Lineker, John Lithgow, Mark Ruffalo, Maxine Peake, Rosie O'Donnell, Steve Coogan, and Tilda Swinton.
Josie Naughton, co-founder and CEO of Choose Love, commented: “Words won’t save the lives of Palestinian children as they are being killed, words won’t fill their empty stomachs.
“We need action from Keir Starmer now. That means stopping all arms sales and licenses, making sure that legitimate humanitarian organisations can reach people in Gaza. It means doing everything possible to make these horrors end.
“Action is a choice, just as inaction is one. History will remember what we did in this moment. We are begging the Prime Minister to make the right choice.”
🚨BREAKING: Benedict Cumberbatch, @DUALIPA, @rizwanahmed, Nicola Coughlan and more than 300 other public figures have signed Choose Love’s letter demanding Keir Starmer end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza.
We must act now.
Please share. pic.twitter.com/gTwCYrdPuH
— Choose Love (@chooselove) May 29, 2025
The open letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, published by Choose Love on May 29, says:
Dear Prime Minister Keir Starmer,
We urge you to take immediate action to end the UK’s complicity in the horrors in Gaza.
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. Mothers, fathers, babies, grandparents – an entire people left to starve before the world’s eyes.
290,000 children are on the brink of death – starved by the Israeli government for more than 70 days. They cry until they can’t cry anymore — until hunger takes even their voices. And their parents are left to do the unthinkable: hold them, and wait.
Those who survive starvation wake up to bombs falling on them. Violence stamped with UK inaction – flown with parts shipped from British factories to Israel, could be obliterating families in seconds. Each arms shipment makes our country directly complicit in their deaths.
Over 15,000 children have already been killed – including at least 4,000 under the age of four. Bedrooms where children once slept, kitchens where families shared meals, schools where they learned – all reduced to rubble while Britain stands by.
You can’t call it “intolerable” and keep sending arms.
Every moment this continues, is another moment children die on our watch. This complicity is not inevitable – it is a choice. What do you choose, Prime Minister?
We call on you to:
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Immediately suspend all UK arms sales and licences to Israel
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Use all available means to ensure full humanitarian access across Gaza for experienced aid organisations without military interference
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Make a commitment to the children of Gaza that you will broker an immediate and permanent ceasefire and stop the starvation
History is written in moments of moral clarity. This is one. The world is watching and history will not forget.
The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?
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