Brian Eno speaks ahead of tonight's Together For Palestine fundraising concert

Brian Eno has opened up about his organisation of the Together For Palestine fundraising concert, set to take place at Wembley Arena this evening.

In an opinion piece published in The Guardian, Eno said he was inspired by the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute — also referred to as the Free Nelson Mandela Concert, as the anti-apartheid activist was jailed at the time — in July 1988, also at Wembley.

"The event was broadcast to a global audience of 600 million people, it made Mandela a household name around the world and, in all probability, hastened his release," Eno said.

"The concert worked because, then as now, politics sits downstream of culture. The stories we tell ourselves and each other are how we develop and share our feelings about this world – and other possible worlds. This gives our storytellers – writers, musicians, artists, actors – incredible power to shape the space in which politicians are able to operate.

"Which brings us to Gaza."

Eno described how Israel's occupation of Palestine "has been conducted with words and images as well as with bullets and bombs," which has led to artists who speak out for Palestine being subjected to censorship.

He listed various examples of such censorship, including actor Melissa Berrera being dropped by her production company because she wrote about "genocide" in Gaza in social media posts, artists in Germany having exhibitions terminated for critiquing the Israeli government and the BBC's refusal to screen a documentary about health workers in Gaza earlier this year.

He said he had been working for a year to organise Together For Palestine, during which he struggled to confirm a venue, claiming "the mere mention of the word 'Palestine' was a near-certain precursor to refusal."

"But at some point in the past few months, something changed," Eno said.

"Wembley signed a contract, YouTube finally consented to streaming the event, and – most importantly – artists agreed to appear. And so this evening, Wembley hosts the biggest cultural event in support of Palestinian rights since the destruction of Gaza began."

Together For Palestine announced the final lineup for the show this morning, adding Ruth Negga, Florence Pugh, Paul Weller and more. The show will also feature appearances from Benedict Cumberbatch, Jameela Jamil, PinkPantheress and Damon Albarn, as well as Palestinian artists such as Saint Levant and Elyanna.

"Five years ago, perhaps even as recently as this time last year, it would have been impossible to imagine dozens of notable global artists coming together to support Palestine," Eno said.

"But the brutality of Israel's assault on Gaza, its deliberate starvation of the population, and the unabashed public statements of Israeli ministers advocating ethnic cleansing have combined to create deep cracks in the wall of fear."

He said the fear of speaking out may be in part due to "a deliberate, decades-long campaign to conflate" support of Palestine with support of terror.

He compared the situation to those who branded Mandela a "terrorist" in the 1980s, adding that "what was once disputed can suddenly become suffused with moral clarity" as many politicians went on to apologise for their approach to apartheid opposition to Mandela.

"Maybe one day future leaders of western political parties will issue a similar mea culpa for their complicity in the brutal violence currently being inflicted on Palestinian families," Eno said.

"It will be too late to save many tens of thousands of civilian victims of this war. But if there is a reckoning it might be, in part at least, because actors, artists, writers and musicians helped us to see Palestinians as human beings, as much deserving of respect and protection as their Israeli neighbours."

He concluded with a quote from Egyptian-Canadian writer Omar El Akkad: "One day everyone will have always been against this."

Together For Palestine will consist of musical performances, speeches and art, interspersed with segments showcasing doctors, journalists, aid workers and other people working in Gaza.

It is the UK's largest ever fundraising concert for Gaza, with all proceeds going to Palestinian aid organisations such as the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Palestine Medical Relief Society and Taawon.

While the in-person show at Wembley Stadium is sold out, it will be livestreamed at 7:00 p.m. tonight on YouTube.