In October 2023, Dua Lipa — alongside stars like Ayo Edebiri, Jennifer Lopez, and Melissa Barrera — made headlines after signing an open letter to President Joe Biden demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Now, she’s doubling down on her stance in a new cover story.
Speaking to Rolling Stone on 16 January, Dua Lipa got candid about her feelings on the Israel-Hamas war and why she’s been so actively pro-Palestinian for years. “My feelings on displaced people [are] very real and raw, and it is a difficult subject to speak about because it’s so divisive. But there is a world where you can feel for all lives that are being lost,” Lipa said in her interview.
“I feel so bad for every Israeli life lost and what happened on 7 October. 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,” the star continued. “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.”
Lipa went on to say that while “it’s probably easier to be apolitical” about conflicts like this — and claimed that she feels most people don’t want pop stars like herself to be political — she feels the need to speak up not only because of the humanitarian crisis we are witnessing live but also because of her family history.
‘People all over the world need to know that in Israel and Palestine, there are two movements working together to resolve the conflict.’
“My existence is kind of political, the fact that I lived in London because my parents left from the war,” Lipa recounted. “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.”
“I think there’s no kind of deep discussion about war and oppression. It just is something that we’ve seen happen time and time again. I feel like just being a musician and posting about something doesn’t make enough of a difference, but hopefully, just showing solidarity, which is sometimes all you feel like you can do, is important,” Lipa said. She also took the opportunity to further clarify her stance: “And I have to say this: I don’t condone what Hamas is doing, regardless of what [that advertisement in] The New York Times said [in 2021]. Every life is precious.”
ICYMI: Lipa called for an end to what she referred to as “the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” in 2021; Lipa, along with the Hadid sisters, was subsequently accused of antisemitism in an ad by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of the World Values Network, run by The New York Times.
After publicly calling out the publication for it, Lipa featured former Times editor Dean Baquet as a guest on her podcast to talk about the ad, which she further discussed in this new interview.
“Speaking to an editor was important for me because I felt like I was put in danger and I was put in a place where my core values were completely flipped on [their] head,” Lipa told Rolling Stone. “That really hurt because I feel like when I do want to speak about something, I hope that people will see it for what it is and that there is no malicious intent.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Lipa also admitted she’s “not interested in trying to be controversial or do something for a reaction” with what she posts on Instagram, which RS notes is currently “the only social platform she runs herself.”
This article first appeared in Teen Vogue.
Almost every conflict involves exceptionally high levels of violence against girls and women.
