In its 55 years of existence, the Glastonbury rock and pop festival has seen its share of controversies. The coal mining reconversion (in 1984), Brexit (in 2016), abortion restrictions in the US (2022), or simply the support for the Labour Party and attacks on the Conservatives (in 2017 and 2019) have been some of the causes that musicians and singers have brought up on stage. But no controversy has reached the levels of the one sparked this year by the statements and slogans of the English group Bob Vylan and the Northern Irish group Kneecap regarding Israel and the Gaza war.
This Monday afternoon, it was revealed that British police have opened a criminal investigation into the performances of the duo and the rap group, respectively, for chanting derogatory slogans against the Israeli army and the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, reports Reuters. The police are investigating both groups for public order offenses after reviewing video and audio recordings of Saturday's performances, according to the police statement. Vylan's performance included chants on stage of "death, death to the Israeli Defense Forces", a reference to the Israeli Defense Forces fighting in the Gaza war, while Kneecap directed chants against Starmer and condemned Israel to the attendees.
The dispute has also erupted just as the government of Labour's Keir Starmer is trying to outlaw and declare the Palestine Action group a terrorist organization, which has carried out vandalistic actions to protest against the Gaza war and what they describe as "apartheid" (i.e., racial discrimination) against Palestinians in Israel. The government presented the proposal to declare Palestine Action a terrorist group in Parliament on Monday, which could result in sentences of up to 14 years in prison for its members. However, on Friday, a London court had temporarily halted the outlawing of the group, whose most notable action was painting with spray and causing minor damage to two British Air Force transport planes last Friday.
Meanwhile, Bob Vylan's performance at Glastonbury threatens to become a political liability for the BBC public broadcasting network. The reason being that they did not interrupt the online broadcast of the group's concert - an ultra-left duo of grime rap and punk whose members have never disclosed their names because they believe they live in "a police state" - when their singer, Bobby Vylan, began repeating the phrase "kill, kill the IDF" (the acronym in English for the Israeli Defense Forces, i.e., the Armed Forces of that country), and encouraged the audience to chant along. Vylan also repeated the slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", commonly interpreted as a call for the annihilation of the state of Israel and has become one of the most common slogans in the Anglo-Saxon world to protest against the Gaza war.
The UK's audiovisual content regulator, Ofcom, has opened an investigation into the BBC to determine if the entity did not uphold editorial standards by allowing the singer's words to be broadcast, which occurred between two songs, but in a concert and at a festival marked by criticisms of Israel. The BBC's own management has stated that the broadcast was "completely unacceptable."
Bob Vylan's show could thus be considered a call to racial hatred and anti-Jewish sentiment. And the BBC, according to its critics, should be prepared to act if the messages against Israel reach dangerous levels, given that the grime rap and punk duo performed right after the Northern Irish rappers Kneecap, whose leader, Mo Chara, is awaiting trial for an alleged terrorism glorification offense after appearing with a flag of the terrorist group Hizbullah on stage at a concert in London last November. Prime Minister Keir Starmer himself had unsuccessfully requested the organizers of Glastonbury not to invite Kneecap to this year's edition of the festival.
If Ofcom (officially known as the Office of Communications) decides to proceed with its investigation, it could formally reprimand the BBC, compel the entity to publicly apologize, and impose internal operational changes to prevent similar incidents in the future. In any case, the political blow to the broadcasting network is significant. The Culture Minister, Lisa Nandy, has contacted the BBC's Director-General, Tim Davie, to demand "an urgent clarification of the procedure" followed by the network in the broadcast.