British Stars for Palestine

British celebrities lined up to support Palestinian refugees and their cause at London’s Cafe de Paris on June 18.

The annual Hoping Foundation event was attended this year by “Lily Allen, Guy Ritchie, David Walliams, Jeremy Clarkson, Sienna Miller, Jemima Khan, Will Young, Tracey Emin, Shane MacGowan and socialite Kimberly Stewart. Lost’s Matthew Fox also made an appearance.”

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[The children the Hoping Foundation helps. Photo from Hoping Foundation site.]

The stars engage in a karaoke contest to raise money for Palestinian refugee children. This year’s event was judged by top model Kate Moss and Louis Walsh, the winning contestant from Britain’s the X Factory which is an American Idol-type show.

The stars sang and raised more than $525,000 for Palestinian refugee children. Academy Award winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow was one of the attendees and sang the Fugees’s hit “Killing Me Softly”.

The event has become somewhat of a must among British celeb royalty. Last year’s event, for instance, included “Elton John, Elizabeth Hurley and Bryan Adams” and James Blunt. Elton John was crowned Karaoke King last year.

The Hoping Foundation was started by fashion designer Bella Freud, great granddaughter of the psychiatrist, and Oxford professor and ex-PLO member Karma Nabulsi.

I think about this event and think how something like this does not happen in the U.S. Just how outside the loop American culture is on the occupation of Palestine. How the world is progressive and on the side of the Palestinians and Americans still overwhelmingly defend an atavistic ethnic nationalism. But the day will come when a night like this can happen in Hollywood and New York.

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