Bob Vylan have issued a contemporary assertion concerning their controversial Glastonbury set, and reiterated that they’re “not for the demise of Jews or Arabs or every other race or group”. Discover the most recent remark in full under.
The duo gave a controversial efficiency at Worthy Farm on Saturday (June 28). Happening over on the West Holts stage forward of Kneecap’s set, the efficiency noticed the group use their platform to voice their help for Palestine, name out the BBC, Israel, the US and UK governments and extra.
Varied political slogans had been projected onto the display behind them, together with “Free Palestine – United Nations have known as it a genocide – the BBC calls it a ‘battle’”, and so they additionally led chants of each “free, free Palestine” and “demise, demise to the IDF”.
Following the slot, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau described the actions as a “hateful tirade” and confirmed that the band have had their US visas revoked. It was additionally reported that they had been dropped by their agent United Expertise Company (UTA), and that Somerset police had been launching “a legal investigation” into the set.
The frontman Bobby Vylan would then deal with the incident on Sunday (June 29), saying that he thought it was important to be “instructing our kids to talk up for the change they need and want is the one method that we make this world a greater place”.
Now, he has shared one other assertion clarifying that he’s after the “dismantling of a violent army machine”, not calling for “the demise of Jews or Arabs or every other race or group”.
“Not the primary. Not the final,” the assertion started. “At present, a very good many individuals would have you ever imagine a punk band is the primary risk to world peace. Final week it was a Palestine strain group, the week earlier than that it was one other band.”
“We aren’t for the demise of Jews, Arabs or every other race or group of individuals. We’re for the dismantling of a violent army machine. A machine whose personal troopers had been instructed to make use of ‘pointless deadly drive’ in opposition to harmless civilians ready for help. A machine that has destroyed a lot of Gaza,” it added. “We, like these within the highlight earlier than us, usually are not the story. We’re a distraction from the story. And no matter sanctions we obtain might be a distraction.”
“The federal government doesn’t need us to ask why they continue to be silent within the face of this atrocity? To ask why they aren’t doing extra to cease the killing? To feed the ravenous? The extra time they speak about Bob Vylan, the much less time they spend answering for his or her legal inaction,” it continued.
“We’re being focused for talking up. We aren’t the primary. We won’t be the final. And if you take care of the sanctity of human life and freedom of speech, we urge you to talk up, too. Free Palestine.”
The feedback across the group “not being the story” and “one other band” that spoke out earlier than them each relate to Kneecap, who divided opinion after their set at Coachella and noticed member Mo Chara seem in court docket over an alleged terror offence. Among the many many artists who spoke out in help of the hip-hop trio had been Huge Assault.
The group, who’ve been vocal of their help for Palestine for many years and have boycotted performing in Israel since 1999, issued a press release supporting Kneecap and urging the main focus to stay on what they name a “genocide” in opposition to the Palestinian individuals.
“Kneecap usually are not the story,” Huge Assault wrote. “Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story. And the silence, acquiescence and help of these crimes in opposition to humanity by the elected British authorities is the actual story.”
The UN has discovered Israel’s army actions to be in keeping with genocide, and a minimum of 56,000 Palestinians have been killed within the battle, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry.
The feedback in the direction of the IDF made by Bob Vylan at Glasto got here simply hours after it was reported that the Israeli army had launched an investigation into potential conflict crimes following mounting proof that troops deliberately opened fireplace on Palestinian civilians attempting to entry help in Gaza (through The Guardian).
The report outlined that a whole bunch had been killed in current weeks by the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) whereas ready for meals to be distributed, and final Friday (June 27) the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted unnamed Israeli troopers as claiming that they had been ordered to fireplace at crowds close to meals distribution websites to maintain them away from Israeli army positions. The IDF has rejected the accusations and mentioned that no such orders got.
“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate assaults on civilians,” the assertion mentioned, whereas Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Israel Katz, described the claims as “malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF, probably the most ethical army on the earth” (through The Guardian).
Following the duo’s efficiency at Glastonbury 2025, the Glastonbury issued a press release saying it was “appalled” by their “demise to the IDF” chants, including: “Their chants very a lot crossed a line and we’re urgently reminding everybody concerned within the manufacturing of the Competition that there isn’t a place at Glastonbury for anti-Semitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
Cupboard minister Wes Streeting has additionally criticised the efficiency, whereas additionally telling the Israeli embassy to “get its personal home so as”.
The BBC have mentioned they need to have pulled dwell protection of the group’s Glastonbury 2025 set, whereas Ofcom say they’re treating it “as a matter of urgency”.
Tradition Secretary Lisa Nandy has additionally weighed in on the BBC’s option to dwell stream the set, saying “a number of” editorial failures “turns into an issue of management”.
