ANNIE LENNOX - LENNOX CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO END GAZA STRIKES

LENNOX CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO END GAZA STRIKES

Singer ANNIE LENNOX has spoken out against the Israeli bomb strikes on Gaza - calling for an end to the "slaughter and systematic murder" of Arabs living in the area.
The Eurythmics legend was joined by Bianca Jagger and British comic Alexei Sayle at a press conference in London to slam the attacks - which are thought to have killed 400 people and left hundreds injured.
Lennox will join a planned demonstration in the British capital on Saturday (03Jan08) to demand an immediate end to the Israeli raids.
The violence in the Middle East between Hamas controlled Gaza and Israel began last week (Beg22Dec08), with both sides ignoring international calls for a ceasefire.
And a teary-eyed Lennox told reporters she had been "shaken to the core" by the warfare.
She says, "I was thinking as a mother and as a human being - how was this going to be a solution to peace? How are we going to find the answer in this way?
"The reason I'm here today is to use my freedom of speech, my right as an individual in a free world, to encourage people to get together and protest against this means of 'conflict resolution' which will never work."
Palestine and Israel have long fought over control of Gaza; in 1994 Palestine took over rule of the area from Israel, which had governed the area since 1967. Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic paramilitary organisation, took leadership of the area in 2007.