Rap duo Bob Vylan led a chant of “Death to the IDF” during its performance at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday.
Footage also shows a member of the duo addressing the audience: “We’ve done it all. From working in bars to working for f***ing Zionists.”
Eight in ten British Jews consider themselves to be Zionists; only 6% do not, according to our representative polling.
Footage also showed chanting of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during the performance.
The genocidal chant ‘From the River to the Sea’, which is regularly heard at anti-Israel protests, refers to the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, and, whether intended or not, is widely understood to represent a call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state – and its replacement with a Palestinian state. It is reasonably interpreted to be a call for the annihilation of half the world’s Jews, who live in Israel. Our representative polling shows that 95% of British Jews consider the chant ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free’ to be an antisemitic call to destroy the Jewish state. Only 2% do not.
The group was performing as the supporting act for Kneecap, whose member, Liam O’Hanna, has been charged with displaying a flag in support of Hizballah, a proscribed terrorist organisation, at a concert at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town on 21st November last year. Footage of the concert in question appeared to show a member of the band, draped in a Hizballah flag, shouting to the crowd, “Up Hamas, up Hizballah.”
Several venues, including Eden Sessions and Plymouth Pavilions, dropped Kneecap from scheduled performances earlier this year, following calls by Campaign Against Antisemitism. We also wrote to Glastonbury Festival, calling for it to drop Kneecap from its line-up, but organisers did not respond.
During Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury, one of its members said that fans should start a “riot” at Mr O’Hanna’s upcoming court hearing.
It is understood that Avon and Somerset Police, in whose jurisdiction the Glastonbury Festival takes place, is reviewing footage of both Kneecap and Bob Vylan from the festival.
Bob Vylan has reportedly been dropped by UTA, its management agency, and U.S. visas for an upcoming concert have reportedly been revoked.
The BBC faced damning public backlash – making headlines in the The Times, the MailOnline and The Guardian – after it broadcast both Bob Vylan’s chanting and published Kneecap’s performance on BBC iPlayer, its online streaming service.
In a statement issued on Monday, the BBC accepted that it should have done better, saying: “The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence. The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. In light of this weekend, we will look at our guidance around live events so we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air.”
On Sunday, a statement was published on Glastonbury Festival’s Instagram account, which read: “Glastonbury Festival was created in 1970 as a place for people to come together and rejoice in music, the arts and the best of human endeavour. As a festival, we stand against all forms of war and terrorism. We will always believe in – and actively campaign for – hope, unity, peace and love. With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer’s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs. However, we are appalled by the statements made from the West Holts stage by Bob Vylan yesterday. Their chants very much crossed a line and 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.”
Bob Vylan and Kneecap were not the only acts at the festival which courted controversy relating to the Jewish community.
Gary Lineker was also listed to speak at the festival; at the end of his session, he said: “Free Palestine.” The BBC recently parted ways with Mr Lineker after he shared a post containing a video which misrepresented Zionism and featured a rat emoji. Campaign Against Antisemitism led the pressure on the broadcaster to end its relationship with the football commentator and activist.
Owen Jones, the columnist-activist who has previously claimed that Germany was “forcing” Palestinians to “pay” for the Holocaust, was also listed to give a talk titled, ‘Fighting injustice at home and genocide abroad’. Mr Jones was joined by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Director Ben Jamal. PSC is the main organiser of the regular Palestine marches in Britain. The protests have turned our urban centres into no-go zones for Jews.
Francesca Nadin was also on the schedule. Ms Nadin is a member of the soon-to-be-proscribed Palestine Action, an extremist group of thugs which gained even more notoriety after it recently claimed the sabotage of two RAF planes.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for Jewish attendees at Glastonbury to contact us at [email protected].
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Now in the UK, the chants are indistinguishable from the chants in Tehran, broadcast by our state broadcaster. Under Emily Eavis, Glastonbury has continued its headlong descent into a pit of extremism and hatred, but it is the behaviour of the BBC that is even more dangerous. We are formally complaining to the BBC over its outrageous decision to broadcast Bob Vylan’s calls for death and destruction, and to place Kneecap’s performance on iPlayer. Any artist claiming to be a humanitarian should be steering clear of Glastonbury, but more importantly, our national broadcaster must apologise for its dissemination of this extremist vitriol, and those responsible must be removed from their positions. That must inevitably include Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director-General, who has had more than enough chances to stop this abuse of licence fee payers’ money to platform bigots and extremists from Gaza to Glastonbury. If this is not met with the firmest condemnation and recourse, then it is the surest sign yet that Britain is becoming a haven for hatred and unsafe for Jews.”
