Bob Vylan’s anti-Israel chants prompt UK police review
Bobby Vylan performs at the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, England
British police say they’re examining videos of a band that led chants of “death” to Israel’s military at the Glastonbury Festival.
Rapper Bobby Vylan of the rap punk duo Bob Vylan led festivalgoers on Saturday in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the [Israeli military]”.
The Avon and Somerset Police said it’s aware of comments made by acts at the festival and its officers will review video evidence “to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation”.
Festival organisers said on Instagram that Vylan’s chants “very much crossed a line”.
“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,” they said.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting condemned Bob Vylan’s actions as “appalling”.
But it's fine for Israeli football supporters to chant death to Arabs....
I'm getting really sick of Europe. I wanted to show my kids where I grew up, but I don't want to go back to The Netherlands, nor France, Germany, Italy or the UK again. Still the same old colonial criminals.
Does Glastonbury represent a new ‘radical force in politics’?
The controversy over musical artists invoking Palestine during performances at the United Kingdom’s Glastonbury Festival reflects the event’s longstanding political character, says George McKay, a media studies professor at the University of East Anglia.
Since the 1980s, Glastonbury has been known for embracing progressive causes – from nuclear disarmament to labour rights, he said. But its ties to mainstream British media, including the BBC and The Guardian, have given it a vast audience – and drawn added scrutiny, McKay told Al Jazeera.
Referencing Kneecap, the Irish-language hip-hop group that led fans in chants of “Free Palestine”, McKay asked: “Are they going to kind of take this on and become a radical force in politics… or is this the high point and then they’re going to crumble under a combination of legal action and a sense that they’ve gone too far and that’s the end of it?
“If it’s the latter, it doesn’t really sort of give you the sense that popular music is going to open up again and have an extraordinary new wave of radical politics,” said McKay, who authored a book on the Glastonbury Festival. “It may well be that the market wins and the politics takes a quieter turn.”
