Oh my. Israel and its many friends in high places are stunned and affronted. A chorus of severe disapproval has swept the land.
During his performance, rapper Bobby Vylan shouted “Free, free Palestine’ and “Death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces).” Many in the crowd joined in.
Calling for the death of anyone or group is plainly wrong. However, it is also plainly wrong to accuse the guy of wanting to kill the nation of Israel or of being anti-Semitic.
Isreal is not picked on, as is alleged by Zionists. At many fests, musicians and speakers have condemned Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia. I have heard some of this myself.
The Israeli Embassy in the UK is “deeply disturbed” by what it called “inflammatory and hateful” rhetoric and has invited organisers artists and public leaders ‘ to denounce and reject of all forms of hatred,”. (CNN). I now invite the embassy to condemn the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric that comes out of their nation and embassy. One of many examples- their ambassador Tzipi Hotovely on LBC last September, asserted that schools, mosques, and most homes have Hammas munitions tunnels, so must be razed. (Iain Dale show)
Keir Starmer quickly condemned the rapper. This same PM ignored the genocide of Palestinian civilians and then belatedly joined EU leaders- all Isreal’s enablers- to issue a statement which lacked moral urgency.
The Telegraph wants Vylan to be punished like Lucy Connely, who incited violence towards asylum seekers and migrants during last year’s riots. Do you believe Israeli soldiers are in serious danger after Glasto? I can’t say I do.
All over social media, you see IDF soldiers boasting about their killing fields, playing with toys and clothes of the dead. That does not get the right exercised at all.
Danny Cohen, an ultra-Zionist, once a big boss at the BBC, has been leading the charge against the corporation which included Vylan’s act in its Glastonbury broadcasts. Cohen still exerts an enormous influence in his old place of work. He is unaccountable. Licence fee payers must be told why he still has such clout.
Witness the double standards. Right wingers are manic free speech advocates, but only for those who condemn ‘the woke’ and the left. If we, the woke and lefties, speak freely and take on the right, its adherents revile as ‘unpatriotic’ enemies within.
They target music fests because crowds there are mostly environmentalist, egalitarian, anti-establishment and idealistic. I am old, but I’ve spoken at many of them- this year will be at Wilderness. It’s edgy; the unexpected happens. Libertarians should celebrate these summer sites of liberty. But what they really, really really want is controlled free speech.
Police are now examining the Vylan footage. One of the musicians of Kneecap, which openly backs Palestinians has been charged with terrorism offences for holding a ‘Hezbollah flag’ handed to him by some stranger. The BBC is buckling. These will have a chilling effect, but briefly. Because no authorities have ever been able to stop young people from saying what they think and expressing their emotions
I protested against the Vietnam war, resisted Thatcherism, police violence and racism. We marched, gathered, shouted, sang defiant songs. The police were heavy handed, conservative papers shrieked. But we carried on.
My final point: politics cannot be excised from culture.
During Apartheid, some stars like The Beach Boys, Elton John, Cher and Status Quo played in South Africa during the cultural boycott, called for by Mandela’s ANC. The Beatles and Rolling Stones stayed away; Stevie Wonder released It’s Wrong (Apartheid) and was arrested during an anti-Apartheid protest in Washington DC. ( Wiki)
Music gigs in the past, were less commercial and more radical. The Rock Against Racism festival in London’s Victoria Park in 1978 was triggered by Eric Clapton asking fans to back Powell and ‘get the foreigners out, get the wogs out, get the coons out” and David Bowie praising Adolf Hitler and advocating fascism. That day led to a vast, youth led anti-racist movement.
Morrisey has cancelled his latest tour and moans the music industry is not backing him. Good, I say. His far right views are an abomination.
He’s not performed in Glastonbury since 2011. Those, whose free speech principles are selective, may back this martyr and demonize the festival again. But they will not break or tame Glasto. Its too big, too important, too popular to submit to their mean agenda or illegitimate power. Hallelujah.
Published in the I paper in July 2025