Mehdi Hasan repeats debunked claim about number of journalists killed in Gaza at star-studded ‘Free Palestine’ jamboree in Wembley

Hasan’s claim appears to have come from a Brown University report which alleged that more journalists have been killed in the Gaza War than in both world wars combined.

The study, published by the Cost of War Project (CWP) at the university’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, claimed that more than 250 journalists had been killed in the Strip while just 69 journalists were killed across both previous world wars.

Hoewever Salo Aizenberg of Honest Reporting, a pro-Israel media monitoring group, has pointed out that Israel’s official Holocaust memorial institution, Yad Vashem, reported that 1,425 Jewish journalists were murdered by the Nazis during the Shoah.

The Wembley concert, which was organised by Brian Eno, raised a reported £1.5 million for Palestinian charities, which will be distributed via the UK charity Choose Love.

The eclectic line-up saw 69 artists, speakers and activists take to the stage during the four-hour show, ranging from Hollywood actor Richard Gere to Love Island host Laura Whitmore, footballer Eric Cantona to the controversial United Nations special rapporteur Francesa Albanese.

Speaking to the crowd, Albanese – who has a long history of making anti-Israel statements – said: “Such cruelty did not start 700 days ago. For nearly a century the Palestinian people have lived under the weight of a brutal settler colonial project. A perpetual occupation justified as security. Security of whom?”

To cheers from the crowd, she added: “Britain planted the seed of this catastrophe with the Balfour declaration, giving away a land that was never theirs to give.”

Music came from artists including Paloma Faith – who took to the stage wearing a dress with a thigh-high split made of red and white keffiyehs – Blur frontman Damon Albarn, and band Hot Chip, among others. Packed merchandise stands included designs by the likes of British fashion heavyweights Bella Freud and Katherine Hamnett.

Explaining why he felt compelled to organise the concert, Eno wrote in an article for Guardian: “The Israeli occupation of Palestine has been conducted with words and images as well as with bullets and bombs,” adding: “Actors, artists, writers and musicians, helped us to see Palestinians as humans.”

Other celebrities to take part in the concert included actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Riz Ahmed, Florence Pugh, music acts James Blake, Neneh Cherry and Bastille, and Palestinian artists Nai Barghouti, Adnan Joubran and rapper El Far3i.