UK condemns festival chants

UK PRIME Minister Keir Starmer at the weekend added his voice to those condemning a British punk-rap group for anti-Israel remarks at the Glastonbury music festival, an incident that has already sparked a police inquiry.

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Bob Vylan led crowds in chants of “Death, death to the IDF”, a reference to the acronym for the Israeli military, during their set on Saturday.

British police officers are also examining comments by the Irish rap trio Kneecap, whose members have also been highly critical of Israel and its military campaign against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer told The Telegraph at the weekend that “there is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech”.

“I said that Kneecap should not be given a platform and that goes for any other performers making threats or inciting violence,” he added.

“The BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast,” he said, referring to the country's national broadcaster.

One of Kneecap’s members wore a T-shirt dedicated to the Palestine Action Group, which is about to be banned under UK terror laws.

The festival’s organisers said Bob Vylan’s comments had “very much crossed a line”.