Kneecap have said that “Israeli lobbyists” want to silence the band by putting pressure on venues and festivals - including Glastonbury - to cancel their bookings.
That allegation came during the group’s headline set at London’s Wide Awake festival on Friday, during which band members claimed that the lobbyist pressure is designed partly to end their on-stage support for Palestine, but also to discourage other artists from speaking out about the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The Belfast rap group played the London festival, part of the Brockwell Live series, just two days after band member Liam O'Hanna was charged with a terror offence for displaying a Hezbollah flag at another show in London last year. In the wake of that charge, Kneecap staged an impromptu gig at London’s 100 Club, released a new track and were as outspoken as ever when they took to the stage at Wide Awake.
According to the Press Association, O’Hanna told the Wide Awake audience, “they’re trying to cancel gigs, they’re trying to cancel my freedom of travel. And the fact that I’m speaking to this amount of people, and I assume the majority of you will agree, shows that we’re on the right side of history”.
The band also projected a number of statements about the conflict in Gaza onto the screen at the back of the stage, accusing the Israeli government of “committing genocide against the Palestinian people” and the British government of enabling it, concluding with the simple rally call of “free Palestine”.
It’s slightly ironic that the first event in the Brockwell Live series provided such a high profile stage for Kneecap’s strong pro-Palestine views, given that the big controversy involving other festivals taking place in Brockwell Park relates to their connections with Israel.
That controversy has seen artists boycott other Brockwell Live festivals in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, because - unlike Wide Awake - they are owned by Superstruct, which is in turn owned by private equity firm KKR, which has investments in Israel.
So within the same festival programme you have one controversy over a band’s outspoken support for the Palestinians, and another because of a festival owner’s support for Israel.
After two of the Superstruct-owned Brockwell Live festivals - Field Day and Mighty Hoopla - issued statements critical of KKR’s “unethical investments in Israel”, Superstruct itself published a statement about the controversy that is now impacting on an increasing number of its events.
It wasn’t overtly critical of KKR's investments, but said of the situation in Israel and Palestine, “we join those calling for an immediate end to the conflict and for humanitarian aid to reach those suffering in Gaza without delay”.
Kneecap have long courted controversy with the political content of their creative output, but things have really ramped up since their performance at Coachella earlier this year, when they displayed strong pro-Palestine and anti-Israel statements during their set.
Some commended the group for using such a high profile platform to share a strong political message, while others criticised their statements, calling on venues and festivals to cancel their upcoming performances.
It was in the wake of Coachella that clips surfaced of the show last year where Kneecap seemed to express support for Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which have been classified as proscribed terrorist organisations by the UK government. That makes it a criminal offence to directly or indirectly encourage others to support either group. Which prompted the police investigation that led to last week’s charge.
Obviously, many of those people who support Kneecap’s strongly pro-Palestine position would nevertheless disapprove of them endorsing either Hamas or Hezbollah, and - after the footage of the 2024 show started doing the rounds - the group issued a statement insisting “we do not, and have never, supported” either of those organisations.
Among the festivals under increasing pressure to drop Kneecap from its line-up is Glastonbury. O’Hanna referenced that when discussing the terror offence charge during the group’s Wide Awake set.
He said, “I went for an interview with the counter-terror police and within days they came to a verdict that they were going to charge me. Never has it been that quick. And the reason it was that quick was because Glastonbury is just around the corner, they’re trying to silence us”.
“We are being made an example of”, he added, “the Israeli lobbyists are trying to prove to other artists ‘that if you speak out, we’re going to hit you where it hurts most’”.
Elsewhere during their performance the group’s members said that even the Wide Awake set was hanging in the balance last week. “Honestly lads, you have no idea how close we were to being pulled off this gig", one of them told the audience.
O’Hanna is now due to appear in Westminster Magistrates Court on 18 Jun, ten days before Kneecap’s scheduled appearance at Glastonbury.
According to the PA, the group told audience members on Friday, “If anybody’s about on June 18 - we’re all going to gather outside the Westminster court to show support”, while also adding, “anybody who’s free on June 18 – get a big bag of ket and we’ll go on the steps of Westminster”.