The Northern Ireland hip-hop group, Kneecap, responded on Friday to criticism for its pro-palestinian and antiisraelis messages during its coachella set earlier this month, calling the violent reaction a “coordinated smear campaign”.
The group, which has expressed its vision of the conflict in Gaza, made its set during the festival in front of a screen with the words “F — Israel, Palestine Free”.
The group said in an X publication after the first weekend of the festival that the organizers subsequently censored the live broadcast of their performance. Although it was not transmitted online, the images of the message on the stage circulated on social networks, which caused online outrage.
Tribe of Nova, the organizers behind the Nova Music Festival in Israel, where Hamas launched a deadly attack on October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 people dead, said Kneecap’s messages “deeply hurt to many in our community.” The organization invited the members of the Band to “visit the Nova exhibition and experience first hand the stories of the murdered, those who survived and those who are still retained as hostages.”
Kneecap said in an X post on Friday: “Those who attack us want to silence the criticisms of a massive killing. They harmon the false accusations of anti -Semitism to distract, confuse and provide coverage for genocide.”
“We do not give AF*CK what a religion someone practices,” the group continued. “We know that there are a large number of Jewish people outraged by this genocide as we are. What matters to us is that the governments of the countries we do are allowing some of the most horrible crimes of our lives, and we will not remain silent.”
The group’s statement comes a week after Coachella wrapped, and in the midst of the calls of some critics so that the band is rebuked by US officials.
Among the most vocal critics were Sharon Osbourne, a television personality and the wife of Heavy Metal Singer Ozzy Osbourne, who accused Kneecap of Hate speech and said that the United States should revoke the group’s work visas.
“While festivals such as Coachella show remarkable talent in the world, the main objective of music is to unite people,” Osbourne wrote, who said he is from the Irish Catholic Jewish heritage and Ashkenazi, wrote in a long place in X on Tuesday. “It shouldn’t be a place to promote terrorist organizations or spread hate.”
He said that while respecting the “right of artists to exercise their opinions,” Kneecap “brought their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements.”
According to the BBC, during the second weekend performance of the band, the band led a crowd in a “Free Palestine” song, and the member of the Mo Chara band touched the conflict.
“The Irish not long ago were persecuted at the hands of the British, but we were never bombarded by the … heavens without any place to go,” Chara told the audience. “The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”
According to the Palestine Ministry of Health, more than 50,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault to Gaza from the beginning of the war.
Osbourne said that Goldenvouize, the organizers behind the Indian Festival, California, should not have allowed them to act again after seeing their first weekend performance.
“This behavior raises concerns about the suitability of their participation in said festival and shows that they are reserved to play in the United States,” he added, asking people to join it to “advocate for the revocation of the Kneecap work visa.”
Goldenvouize did not immediately respond to a comment request on Friday.
