him to lead a life “of mental and physical trauma”.
This bank holiday weekend, Kneecap will be the headline act at South London’s Wide Awake festival in Brockwell Park. Their next UK date will be their biggest – at Glastonbury. At the last big festival they played at, Coachella, they displayed the message, “F**k Israel. Free Palestine.”
Since then, one of their members has been charged with a terror offence. This relates to footage taken from a gig at the Kentish Town Forum last year, in which Liam O'Hanna (stage name Mo Chana) appears to shout, “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah.” At a previous gig, a member appeared to shout: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
After one gig with them was cancelled, the music industry rallied around. The likes of Paul Weller, Primal Scream, DJ Annie Mac and scores of other acts signed a letter saying: “As artists we feel the need to register our opposition to any political repression of artistic freedom. In a democracy, no political figures or political parties should have the right to dictate who does and does not play at music festivals or gigs that will be enjoyed by thousands of people.”
Not one of these artists spoke up for Oi Va Voi….
The argument over Kneecap is likely to come to a head soon with Glastonbury, which is going to be forced to make a decision: will they showcase this band? If they do, will they demand no political content? Will the BBC screen Kneecap’s performance?
This row is going to be nasty and noisy, no doubt. We’ll see letters and social media posts celebrating a group, even though one of its members has been charged with supporting a terrorist organisation that glorifies the murder of Jews.
For Oi Va Voi and other groups with an Israeli link, however, the slow silent cancellation will continue. And none of those free speech activists in the music world will breathe a word.
Admittedly Oi Va Voi are hardly household names, but if it had been a Palestinian group cancelled for being offensive to Jews (would never happen) you can be sure these big names would be lining up in solidarity, to share their horror.
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