Police are investigating the performances of British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan and Irish rap band Kneecap at the UK’s Glastonbury music festival, after allegations their chants incited violence and hatred.
The festival was viewed by millions over the weekend, after being broadcast live by the BBC.
Bob Vylan called for the crowd to “free Palestine”, then said this about the Israeli Defence Force: “Death to the IDF”.
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Meanwhile, Kneecap led chants against UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, while also condemning Israel.
Glastonbury organisers were under pressure to pull the act ahead of the event, due to one of its members facing a terrorism charge for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a gig last year and saying “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
British police have since confirmed they’re investigating the chants at Glastonbury as a possible public order incident and looking at whether they broke hate crime legislation.
Meanwhile the United States has revoked Bob Vylan’s US visa ahead of the duo’s anticipated American tour later this year.
The moves come after the UK Prime Minister, the BBC, Glastonbury and Lisa Nandy, the UK’s secretary of state culture and media, all condemned the acts.
The BBC apologised for not pulling the livestream, saying the performances were “utterly unacceptable”, deeply offensive.
One group of TV and film professionals from the UK’s screen industry, have defended the musicians though, saying their performances were not antisemitic.
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