Bob Vylan Kneecap the BBC

The last thing on BBC Director General Tim Davie’s mind as he visited with staff during this weekend’s Glastonbury Music Festival in Somerset, England was controversy. 

As evening descended upon the biggest music festival in the United Kingdom, executives at the British broadcasting network, who were piping in coverage of the festival to television sets across the nation, elected to skip the upcoming set of the Northern Irish hip-hop group Kneecap. The trio from Belfast, one of whom sports a signature keffiyeh, have long courted controversy for their open condemnation of Israel’s war in Gaza and, to a lesser extent, extolling the virtues of Irish Republicanism, Irish reunification, and the island’s native Gaelic tongue. Those criticisms have often come cloaked with a healthy dose of anti-British sentiment, including full-throated dismissals of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

And so, when British viewers tuned into coverage of this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Davie had made sure they would be spared three Irish men wrapped in keffiyehs and the Tricolour flag chanting “f*** Keir Starmer.” The BBC chief had averted crisis—or so he thought. 

One swipe of punk rapper Bobby Vylan’s Instagram page will tell you all you need to know about the pseudonymous, dreadlocked wordsmith from Ipswich, England; half the confusingly named duo Bob Vylan (his counterpart, yet more confusingly, goes by the moniker Bobbie Vylan), he is a full-time activist for Palestinian nationalism. During a performance at the Coachella Festival in Southern California this April, lead singer Vylan said the pair will “do everything that is within our power to see a day when the Palestinian people are free and liberated from the tyranny of Israel.” Vylan continued by stating the Palestinian people live “under an oppressive regime that is supported by our government back in the UK and your government here in the United States.” 

Which is why it was odd, for those aware of Vylan’s outspoken political beliefs, that the BBC, which made a deliberate decision to skip Kneecap’s set, went live to Vylan on the West Holts stage this last Saturday via its iPlayer streaming platform. Millions of Brits watch the Glastonbury music festival each year. In 2023, an estimated 22 million people tuned into the music festival across multiple platforms. Vylan, in front of the largest audience of his career, took the stage in front of a raucous crowd waving hundreds of Palestinian flags. Vylan, too, waved the Palestinian flag throughout his performance. But it was Vylan’s words that set off a global reaction. 

“OK, but have you heard this one?” Vylan asked the tens of thousands of fans in attendance as his drummer tapped on the kick drum. “Death, Death to the IDF!” The crowd joined in, calling for the death of the Israel Defense Forces: “Death, Death to the IDF!” The message was being broadcast live to millions across England. “Death, Death to the IDF!” Vylan, whose name is a deconstructed play on legendary American folk singer Bob Dylan, also put his own spin on a familiar pro-Palestinian chant, remarking: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be, will be, Inshallah, it will be free.” Vylan also at one point complained about working for “a f***ing Zionist.” 

The BBC was criticized for its failure to pull the plug on Vylan, whose performance was broadcast another 40 minutes following the remarks. Some wondered whether or not the BBC was tacitly signing off on Vylan’s statements by showing the entire concert. After all, Vylan is known in England as a fierce-tempered anti-Crown critic. 

“This was going out on an afternoon on a Saturday,” said Tom Slater, the editor of Spiked. “You can only come to the conclusion that either these prejudices are shared by a lot of the people who work at the BBC or they’re entirely blind to them, it’s not obvious which is better at this point.” In an article published Sunday, Slater noted the similarity between Glastonbury Music Festival and an Israeli music festival that was attacked during the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel. 

The aftermath of Vylan’s concert has been swift and predictably harsh. The UK police launched a criminal investigation on Monday. Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called Vylan’s act “disgraceful” and compared it to a “modern-day Nazi rally.” Later in the day, U.S Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced on Twitter that state department officials had revoked U.S. visas for the duo ahead of its 26-day tour of the States this summer. 

Landau added that “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” a statement that was mocked by some who observed that Israeli hardliners have been warmly received by the Trump administration. 

Despite loud and angry protests, Vylan has shown no interest in apologizing, instead publishing an explanation of his views on social media Tuesday in a post titled “Silence is not an option.”

“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,” he wrote. “The government doesn’t want us to ask why they remain silent in the face of this atrocity? To ask why they aren’t doing more to stop the killing? To feed the starving?”

Though Vylan’s music is often a protest vehicle for a litany of grievances against capitalism and racism, it’s the Palestinian cause that has vaulted the duo and its lead singer to sudden international fame. The British broadcaster LBC’s James O’Brien defended Vylan and suggested the rapper was an easy target for the British press, which is failing to cover the true horrors in Gaza. “Don’t mention the dead bodies being dragged out of the rubble after they’ve been killed by the people the chants are about,” said O’Brien in response to the rapper’s performance. 

The Vylan fallout is a small but not insignificant moment in a much broader debate about speech and specifically speech about Israel, not only in England but also here in America. Vylan made derisive remarks against the native population of England during his performance this weekend, but those comments went mostly unremarked upon as the crescendo of criticism regarding his statements on Israel grew. Whether the BBC were willing actors in platforming Vylan’s rhetoric deserves further scrutiny considering the group’s well-documented history of political speech during concerts. 

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