The BBC has said that it should have pulled the live broadcast of Bob Vylan’s performance at this weekend’s Glastonbury Festival as soon as one half of the duo started leading the crowd in a chant against the Israeli army with the line “Death Death To The IDF”.
After both media regulator OfCom and Prime Minister Keir Starmer demanded an explanation for why the live broadcast wasn’t pulled, the BBC said “we regret this did not happen”, before adding, “we will look at our guidance around live events so we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air”.
Everyone expected it to be Kneecap’s set that would create the controversies during this year’s BBC coverage of Glastonbury. On that, the BBC decided to play it safe at the last minute, announcing on the day that it would not broadcast the Irish rap group’s performance live, instead making it available on-demand later in the weekend with some light edits.
But BBC bosses should probably have known that Kneecap are not the only artists currently speaking out in very strong terms about the ongoing conflict in Gaza, expressing support for Palestine and strongly criticising the Israeli government and military.
Punk duo Bob Vylan - whose members go by the performer names of Bobby Vylan and Bobbie Vylan - preceded Kneecap on Glastonbury’s West Holts stage on Saturday afternoon.
After calling for a “Free Palestine”, vocalist Bobby began the chant of “Death Death To The IDF” - a reference to the Israel Defense Forces, of course - before citing the common refrain, “from the river to the sea, Palestine must be - will be - free”.
Prior to this weekend’s big event, Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis had come under considerable pressure from politicians, and from some in the music industry, to remove Kneecap from their line-up, ever since the rap trio shared very pro-Palestine and anti-Israel statements during their set at Coachella earlier this year.
Kneecap using their Coachella platform in that way was both commended and condemned by different groups, putting them and their Glastonbury appearance in the media spotlight.
Their critics became more vocal after footage emerged of previous Kneecap shows where the group seemed to support proscribed terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and were seen declaring that “the only good Tory is a dead Tory”. The band subsequently insisted they did not, in fact, support Hamas or Hezbollah, and that the “dead Tory” line was clearly a joke.
Nevertheless, a police investigation into that footage led to bandmember Mo Chara being charged with a terror offence, prompting Prime Minister Starmer to tell The Sun that the group’s Glastonbury booking was “not appropriate”.
But the Eavises resisted all that pressure, something Kneecap acknowledged during their Glastonbury set on Saturday. “The pressure that that family was under and they stood strong”, Mo Chara told the crowd, adding, “Fair play to them”.
However, the Eavises were not impressed with Bob Vylan’s conduct, saying they were “appalled” by the statements Bobby had made. With such a big line-up at Glastonbury, they said, “there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share”.
But Bob Vylan “very much crossed a line and 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”.
Politicians and pundits were quick to join in with the criticism of Bob Vylan, possibly quickly editing statements they had already prepared expecting there to be something to say about Kneecap. Presumably aware that their own audiences probably wouldn’t know or care who Bob Vylan were, those statements very much took aim at the BBC.
Starmer told reporters “there is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech. 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”.
Conservative MP and Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Bobby Vylan should be “arrested and prosecuted” for “inciting violence and hatred”, but not only that, the police should also “urgently investigate and prosecute the BBC” for broadcasting the duo’s performance. “Our national broadcaster”, he added, “should not be transmitting hateful material designed to incite violence and conflict”.
During an interview on the BBC's ‘Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg’, Health Secretary Wes Streeting called Bobby Vylan’s statements “appalling”, adding “I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens”.
Beyond the criticism of the broadcast, Streeting also expressed regret that an artist would be using such incendiary language at a British music festival, given that the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that sparked the current chapter of conflict in Gaza specifically targeted an Israeli music festival.
“The fact that we saw that chant at a music festival”, he said, “when there were Israelis at a similar music festival who were kidnapped, murdered, raped and in some cases still held captive ... I find it pretty revolting we’ve got to a state in this conflict where you’re supposed to sort of cheer on one side or the other like it’s a football team”.
There will be those who are generally supportive of Kneecap and Bob Vylan’s position on Palestine - and their use of their public platforms to express that position - who would nevertheless be critical of them using slogans that may heavily imply, or at least can be easily inferred, to incite violence or to constitute antisemitism. In its statement, the BBC said it considered Bobby's statements to be “antisemitic”.
Although the same people might also be critical of politicians and pundits turning the use of those slogans into such big news stories. They may also agree with Labour MP Zarah Sultana, who said of the outrage sparked by Bob Vylan this weekend, “Why is our media and political class more outraged by musicians showing solidarity with Palestine than by a UK government directly complicit in genocide?”
“Condemn war criminals, not musicians”, she added. “Ban arms sales with a genocidal apartheid state, not non-violent direct action groups”.
Bobby Vylan himself posted to social media yesterday stating, simply, “I said what I said”, before revealing that his phone had been “buzzing non stop” since the performance “inundated with messages of both support and hatred”.
As he observed his busy phone, he revealed, his daughter was busy filling out a school survey on the state of school dinners, adding, “listening to her voice her opinions on a matter that she cares about and affects her daily, reminds me that we may not be doomed after all”.
In an indirect defence of how he chose to use his Glastonbury platform, Bobby said it was important to “teach our children to speak up for the change they want and need”. He went on, “As we grow older and our fire possibly starts to dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us”.
“Let us display to them loudly and visibly the right thing to do when we want and need change”, he continued. “Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on ground level, organising online and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered. Today it is a change in school dinners, tomorrow it is a change in foreign policy”.