A northern Ireland rapper who criticized Israel’s war in Gaza was accused of a crime of terrorism after he was accused of showing the flag of the Hezbollah militant group, British authorities said Wednesday.
The London Metropolitan Police accused Liam O’Hanna, 27, who acts as Mo Chara in the Hip-Hop Kneecap trio, of violating a disposition in the terrorism law of the country that prohibits people who show flags “in such a way or in the circumstances that will arouse reasonable suspicions that he is a defender” of groups of the groups of the United Kingdom.
The Met said he launched an investigation after his founding a video online last month that showed O’Hanna showing Hezbollah’s flag in a place north of London on November 21.
Kneecap representatives did not immediately respond to comments requests on Wednesday night.
Hezbollah, a Shiite political party and a militant organization based in Lebanon, has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries on its militant activities and their ties with Iran.
The group expressed its support for Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, and began to launch rockets, drones and missiles to Israel shortly after. The conflict exploded in a war that has killed thousands of people in Lebanon and displaced tens of thousands in Israel.
After Wednesday’s announcement, Kneecap’s account published a previous interview with O’Hanna in which he said: “I don’t want to be 80, 90 years old and my grandchildren asked me:” Why did nobody do anything about the Palestinian genocide? “And I sit there, ‘F —, I didn’t do enough’. I don’t want to be on that side of history.”
“We are clearer than ever about who we are and what we defend,” added the publication.
More than 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched their terrestrial bombing and invasion campaign after Hamas terrorist attack, according to health officials in the enclave. The attack killed more than 1,200 people in Israel, and hundreds were taken as hostages by Hamas militants, according to the many Israeli.
After a week, the high fire collided in March, Israel resumed its bombing of the enclave, including a series of assaults that killed 300 people in 72 hours this month. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “moving towards total control” of Gaza.
Kneecap has described criticism of his open opinions about the war in Gaza as a “coordinated smear campaign” by those who “want to silence the criticism of a massive killing. The false accusations of anti -Semitism armen to distract, confuse and collect the genocide.”
After the group acted in Coachella last month in front of a screen that said: “F — Israel, free Palestine”, the organizers behind the Festival of the Tribuel de Música de Israel de Israel, where hundreds of people were killed in the October attack of 2023, said Kneecap’s message was “an even more painful face in the light of the massacre.”
“We invite Kneecap members to visit the Nova exhibition in Toronto and experience first hand the stories of the murdered, those who survived and are still retained as hostages,” said the organizers. “Do not embarrass or silence, but to connect. To witness. To understand.”
O’Hanna is expected to appear in the Westminster Magistrates on June 18, the Met said.
