‘Death to IDF' chant at Glastonbury sparks UK police probe into Bob Vylan, Kneecap
The police are investigating 'comments made on stage' by both groups for possible public order offences after reviewing video footage and audio from their performances, the Avon and Somerset regional police force said.
Vylan's set included on-stage chants of 'death, death to the IDF', a reference to the Israel Defense Forces fighting a war in Gaza, while Kneecap led chants against British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and condemned Israel in front of a huge crowd.
'This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time while our enquiries are at an early stage,' the police statement said. 'The investigation will be evidence-led and will closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.'
Earlier, the BBC said it regretted not stopping the livestream of Bob Vylan's set at Glastonbury, south-west England, after a member of the punk-rap duo led what the broadcaster called antisemitic chants against Israel's military.
Saturday's set also included on-stage chants of 'From the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, inshallah, it will be free'.
That chant is a hotly disputed phrase often taken as a call for Israel's destruction and a denial of its right to exist, although many Palestinians dispute that.
The national broadcaster's decision to keep the set streaming live was condemned by Starmer, and media regulator Ofcom said the BBC had questions to answer.
The BBC, which broadcasts the annual festival, issued a warning on screen for strong and discriminatory language while the set was being streamed online, but said on Monday it should have gone further.
The Israeli Embassy in London also condemned the incident, while Starmer demanded answers from the BBC on 'how these scenes came to be broadcast.'
'I said what I said'
The rap duo's lead vocalist, who also goes by the stage name Bobby Vylan, wrote on Instagram: 'I said what I said,' adding he had been 'inundated with messages of both support and hatred'.
'Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place,' he said in the post, apparently in reference to the incident.
Bob Vylan, known for their mix of grime and punk rock, have been outspoken about their support for Palestinians in the past. Their songs tackle a range of issues including racism, homophobia and the class divide.
Political statements by musicians on stage have been in focus since a member of Kneecap was charged last month with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying a flag of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group that is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Britain. He denies the offence.
Israel has repeatedly denied committing abuses in its war in Gaza, which began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others as hostages into Gaza.
Israel launched a military campaign that has since killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza. — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Starmer wins UK welfare vote but faces major Labour rebellion
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote on his welfare plans on Tuesday at significant political cost as he suffered the biggest parliamentary rebellion of his premiership and was forced to back down on key parts of the package. After his lawmakers pushed him into a series of embarrassing U-turns to sharply scale back plans to cut benefits, lawmakers in the House of Commons gave their initial approval to a package of measures Starmer says are vital to securing the future of the welfare system. But the scale of the rebellion - with 49 Labour lawmakers voting against the reforms - underlined the prime minister's waning authority. A year after winning one of the largest parliamentary majorities in British history, Starmer has seen his personal approval ratings collapse and been forced into several policy reversals by his increasingly rebellious lawmakers. 'It's been a bumpy time tonight,' work and pensions minister Liz Kendall told reporters after a session of parliament when lawmakers took turns to mostly criticise the planned changes. 'There are definitely lessons to learn from this process.' Starmer came into office last year promising his big parliamentary majority would bring an end to the political chaos that defined much of the Conservative Party's 14 years in power. But the revolt over the welfare bill underlines the difficulty he has pushing through unpopular changes. In the run-up to the vote, ministers and party enforcers known as 'whips' had been locked in frantic last-ditch lobbying of undecided members of parliament to try to win their backing. In a further concession to rebels about two hours before the vote, the government said it would not finalise changes in eligibility for a key benefit payment until a review into the welfare system had been completed. Paula Barker, a Labour member of parliament, called the attempt to pass the plans 'the most unedifying spectacle that I have ever seen'. In the end, the government suffered by far the biggest rebellion of Starmer's premiership, eclipsing the 16 members of parliament who opposed an infrastructure bill earlier this month. Mel Stride, the opposition Conservative Party finance policy chief, described Starmer's team as 'a government that's lost control', only able to pass the legislation by having 'ripped the heart of it out'. Labour lawmaker Henry Tufnell said by agreeing to the concessions Starmer had shown 'he's willing to take on board these criticisms that people have raised.' Almost 90 disability and human rights groups before the vote urged lawmakers to vote down the legislation. RISING COSTS The proposed reforms are designed to reduce the cost of Britain's growing welfare bill, which the government has described as economically indefensible and morally wrong. Annual spending on incapacity and disability benefits already exceeds the country's defence budget and is set to top 100 billion pounds ($137 billion) by 2030, according to official forecasts, up from 65 billion pounds now. More than half of the rise in working-age disability claims since the COVID-19 pandemic relates to mental health conditions, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank. The government had initially hoped to save 5 billion pounds ($6.9 billion) a year by 2030 by tightening rules for people to receive disability and sickness benefits. But after the government conceded to pressure from its lawmakers, it said the new rules would now apply only to future applicants, not to the millions of existing claimants as had been proposed. Analysts estimated the savings would likely be closer to 2 billion pounds. It was not clear how the additional last-minute change would impact the hoped-for savings in the welfare reform package. Opposition politicians said the government would now have to raise taxes or cut government spending elsewhere to balance the public finances in the annual budget later this year. The government has said there would be no permanent increase in borrowing, but has declined to comment on possible tax rises. While Starmer is under no immediate threat, and the next election is not expected until 2029, his party now trails behind Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK in opinion polls. John Curtice, Britain's most respected pollster, said this week that Starmer was the most unpopular elected prime minister in modern British history, and that voters still did not know what he stood for a year after he was elected.
Malay Mail
3 hours ago
- Malay Mail
World leaders, wild ride: Priyanka Chopra joins John Cena and Idris Elba in buddy-action romp ‘Heads of State'
LONDON, July 2 — Actors John Cena and Idris Elba embark on a wild friendship journey in the comedy action adventure Heads of State. Cena plays Hollywood action hero turned US President Will Derringer, while Elba stars as the experienced and cranky British Prime Minister Sam Clarke, an army veteran. When a tense meeting between the two disparate leaders is followed by an attack that threatens to blow up the world order, they must come together to save the day. Cena and Elba, who also executive produced the movie, previously worked together on the 2021 superhero film The Suicide Squad. 'Honestly, our time on screen is effortless. He brings the best out of me and, in his words, I try to do my best to provide an environment where he can shine,' Cena said at the movie's London premiere on yesterday. 'I love the friendship nature of this film,' he added. The movie is directed by Russian filmmaker and musician Ilya Naishuller, who said Cena and Elba brought a realness to their roles. 'They feed off each other as any good couple would, and they know how to argue together in such a way where this is the perfect combination of the American happy-go-lucky, optimistic president and the prime minister who is real about the job and how difficult it is,' Naishuller said, adding he set out to make a summer blockbuster in the vein of the buddy action comedies of the 1980s and 90s. 'The goal was, I want to do an hour and 45 of the highest quality entertainment I can do and just do a crowd-pleaser and make sure that the people sitting at home on July the 4th are going to be united and having a great time,' he said. Heads of State also stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas in the role of the pun-loving top MI6 agent Noel Bisset. 'It was really different, because it was a comedy. Most of the action I've done has been in drama and thrillers,' Chopra Jonas said. 'I love my puns,' she added. 'I mean, listen, I love a good pun. You've got to be smart to be punny.' Heads of State starts streaming on Prime Video on July 2. — Reuters
Malay Mail
a day ago
- Malay Mail
Trump targets Harvard over antisemitism claims, threatens to pull all federal funding
WASHINGTON, July 1 — US President Donald Trump's administration said on Monday that an investigation had concluded Harvard University violated federal civil rights law for failing to address harassment of Jewish and Israeli students, though critics and some faculty say such probes are a pretext to assert federal control over schools. The announcement could lay the groundwork for further action against the school, which has already seen billions of dollars in grant money frozen by the administration as part of a broader campaign against Harvard and other universities across the country. Universities have said Trump's actions threaten academic freedom and free speech, as well as critical scientific research. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights accused Harvard of 'deliberate indifference' toward discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students, according to a notice from the administration. The department outlined a series of harassment incidents and faulted Harvard's response for being 'too little, too late.' 'Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources,' lawyers for the administration wrote in a separate letter to Harvard President Alan Garber that was viewed by Reuters. The result of the probe was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. In a statement, Harvard said it had taken 'substantive, proactive steps' to address antisemitism on campus, including updating its disciplinary processes and expanding training on antisemitism. 'Harvard is far from indifferent on this issue and strongly disagrees with the government's findings,' the school said. Monday's letter is the latest in a multi-pronged assault that Trump has waged against Harvard, the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, after it rejected sweeping demands to alter its operations. The administration has frozen some US$2.5 billion (RM10.5 billion) in federal grant money to Harvard, moved to block it from enrolling international students and threatened to remove its tax-exempt status. Harvard has filed lawsuits challenging those moves. In addition to targeted funding freezes at specific schools, the administration's cutbacks at agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health have also resulted in terminated grants to research universities. The president has taken particular aim at Harvard and Columbia, two of the nation's most prominent universities. Earlier this year, the administration said it had terminated grants and contracts to Columbia University worth US$400 million, accusing the school of not protecting students from antisemitic harassment during massive campus protests against the Israel-Gaza war, which included some Jewish organisers. Civil rights groups in response have said the contract cancellations lacked due process and were an unconstitutional punishment for protected speech. However, Columbia agreed to negotiate with the administration over demands that the school tighten its protest rules. The school's interim president, Katrina Armstrong, stepped down days later. In May, the Trump administration concluded that Columbia had violated civil rights law by failing to address antisemitism, just as it did on Monday regarding Harvard. Earlier this month, Trump's Department of Education said Columbia had failed to meet accreditation standards by allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from harassment. Other schools have also become targets for the pressure campaign. On Friday, the president of the University of Virginia, James Ryan, resigned under pressure from the Trump administration over the school's diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Last week, the Trump administration announced it would investigate hiring practices at the massive University of California system — which enrols nearly 300,000 students — to examine whether they run afoul of anti-discrimination law. — Reuters
