UK PM condemns 'death to the IDF' chants at Glastonbury Festival

LeMonde

13 hours ago

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday, June 29, added his voice to those condemning a British punk-rap group for anti-Israel remarks at the Glastonbury music festival, an incident that has already sparked a police inquiry. Bob Vylan led crowds in chants of "Death, death to the IDF," a reference to the acronym for the Israeli military, during their set on Saturday. British police officers are also examining comments by the Irish rap trio Kneecap, whose members have also been highly critical of Israel and its military campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
"There is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech," Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the Telegraph Sunday. "I said that Kneecap should not be given a platform and that goes for any other performers making threats or inciting violence."
"The BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast," he added, referring to the country's national broadcaster.
One of Kneecap's members wore a T-shirt dedicated to the Palestine Action Group, which is about to be banned under UK terror laws. The festival's organizers said Bob Vylan's comments had "very much crossed a line."
"We are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence," the festival said in a statement. Avon and Somerset police said Saturday that video evidence would be assessed by officers "to determine whether any offenses may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation."
'Life is sacred'
The chants about Israel's military were led by Bob Vylan's frontman Bobby Vylan, and were broadcast live on the BBC, which airs coverage of Britain's most popular music festival.
"I thought it's appalling," Wes Streeting, the Labour's government's health secretary, said of the chants, adding that "all life is sacred."
"I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens," he told Sky News.
The Israeli embassy said in a statement late Saturday that "it was "deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival." But Streeting also took aim at the embassy, telling it to "get your own house in order."
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"I think there's a serious point there by the Israeli embassy. I wish they'd take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously," he said, citing Israeli settler violence in the West Bank.
A spokesperson for the BBC said Vylan's comments were "deeply offensive" and the broadcaster had "no plans" to make the performance available on its on-demand service. Festival-goer Joe McCabe, 31, told AFP that while he did not necessarily agree with Vylan's statement, "I certainly think the message of questioning what's going on there (in Gaza) is right."
'A joke'
Kneecap, which has made headlines in recent months with its pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel stance, also led crowds in chanting abuse against UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Starmer and other politicians had said the band should not perform after its member Liam O'Hanna, known by his stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offense.
He appeared in court this month, accused of having displayed a Hezbollah flag while saying "Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah" after a video resurfaced of a London concert last year. The Iran-backed Lebanese force Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas are banned in the UK, and it is an offense to express support for them. O'Hanna has denied the charge and told the Guardian newspaper in an interview published Friday that "it was a joke – we're playing characters."
Kneecap regularly leads crowds in chants of "Free Palestine" during its concerts, and fans revere them for their anti-establishment stance and criticism of British imperialism. Their detractors, however, call them extremists. The group apologized this year after a 2023 video emerged, appearing to show one singer calling for the death of British Conservative lawmakers.
Israel began its offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza after the militants launched an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,412 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.