British officials are investigating a rapper who chanted “Death to the IDF,” one of several anti-Israel chants repeated by him and other performers participating this weekend at one of Britain’s most popular music festivals.
At Saturday’s performances at the Glastonbury Festival, rapper Bob Vylan, whose band shares his name, led the crowd in a chant to “Free Palestine,” before calling for the death of the Israeli Defense Forces. Before launching into another song, the singer also chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, inshallah.”
Thousands of audience members — many waving Palestinian flags — repeated the chants along with him.
As anti-Israel sentiment spreads through the U.K.’s summer music scene, at least one artist has said that she has been ostracized by the festival circuit for her support for Israel. Rapper Azealia Banks posted on X that she was pulling out of two festivals scheduled in August because the promoters are “trying to force me to say ‘Free Palestine’ and threatening to cut me from the bill because I won’t.”
“I’m not dealing with the threats and I’m not putting on a f—— hijab,” wrote Ms. Banks, who added that she would not associate with “anything that has cheap group think bulls— attached to it.”
Bob Vylan’s calls for attacking the Israel army reached millions through the BBC simulcast Saturday. The anti-Israel performance was followed by the Irish band, Kneecap, whose lead singer is being investigated for terrorism ties after flying the Hezbollah flag. The BBC pre-empted Kneecap’s performance following its video display in April of anti-Israel commentary during the Coachella concert in California.
Organizers of the event, who sanctioned the appearances, said they were “appalled” by Bob Vylan’s comments.
“There will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share,” reads a statement on the organization’s Instagram channel. “However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line. … There is no place at Glastonbury for anti-Semitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
The BBC described the comments as “deeply offensive” and said it would exclude the set in a digital replay available online.
Avon and Somerset Police said in a statement Saturday that it was investigating the video evidence “to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”
However, even as Britain’s culture secretary was reported to have spoken to the BBC director general about Bob Vylan’s performance, British Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested that the Israeli embassy’s complaints about the glorification of violence against Jews was Israel’s own fault.
“I’d say to the Israeli embassy, get your own house in order,” Mr. Streeting said in a Sky News interview, blaming “Israeli settler terrorists” for “wanton acts of terrorism and violence” in the West Bank, including against the IDF, in the past week.
With several participants at the Glastonbury Festival demonstrating ravenous support for Palestinians, concern is rising about ties between musical acts and terror organizations. One band member of Kneecap, whose North American tour later this year is almost sold out, wore a shirt referencing the activist group, Palestine Action, which last week vandalized British military planes. Investigators are determining whether to ban the group under British anti-terrorism laws.
Following the events at Glastonbury, Ms. Banks added that the anti-Israel crowd was endangering concertgoers and musicians alike by stirring up hatred. “Artists are desperate for airtime and notoriety they will literally do or say anything … ‘Death to the IDF’ is a threat and just a dark energy that doesn’t belong at a music festival,” she wrote.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
