Kneecap Brings Pro-Palestinian Politics Back Onstage at Glastonbury

About 20 minutes into Kneecap’s set at the Glastonbury music festival on Saturday, the Irish-language rap group stopped the show to discuss a topic that has made it one of Britain’s most talked about — and infamous — pop acts.

“I don’t have to lecture you people,” Mo Chara, one of the band’s rappers, told tens of thousands of onlookers at the festival. “Israel are war criminals,” he said.

He then led the crowd in a chant of “Free, free, Palestine.”

Kneecap’s set at Britain’s largest music festival on Saturday was so popular that organizers had to shut access to the arena to stop overcrowding. But it came after two head-spinning months for the group.

In April, Kneecap lost its U.S. visa sponsor after making anti-Israel statements at Coachella. The police in Britain then charged Mo Chara with a terrorism offense for displaying the flag of Hezbollah, the militant group based in Lebanon, onstage at a London show. Several festivals and venues dropped the band from their lineups.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote to Glastonbury urging it not to give Kneecap a platform that could make the band’s views appear acceptable, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week that it was “not appropriate” for Kneecap to play at the festival, or for the BBC to broadcast the performance. (The BBC, which provides live coverage from Glastonbury, did not broadcast Kneecap’s set, and the festival press office did not respond to a request for comment.)

Yet unlike lawmakers, Jewish groups and prosecutors, few in the crowd on Saturday appeared to have concerns about the band or its politics. Amy Pepper, 46, a health worker from Northern Ireland, said the band was “really inspirational, particularly for my kids.” She had seen Kneecap live several times before, she said.