Video has emerged from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member of the Irish trio saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Another video from last year appears to show a band member shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” while draped in a Hezbollah flag on stage.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin called for Kneecap to urgently clarify their remarks, before they issued an apology for their comments, which was described as “gaslighting” by the daughter of a murdered Tory MP.
UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.
A statement on Massive Attack’s Instagram account on Wednesday said: “Language matters of course. The hideous murders of elected politicians Jo Cox and David Amess means there’s no scope for flippancy or recklessness.”
It said politicians are “strategically concocting moral outrage over the stage utterings of a young punk band” while ignoring a “genocide” in Gaza.
The statement added: “Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story.
“And the silence, acquiescence and support of those crimes against humanity by the elected British government is the real story.
“Solidarity with all artists with the moral courage to speak out against Israeli war crimes, and the ongoing persecution and slaughter of the Palestinian people.”
It comes as the Metropolitan Police assesses the video clip, along with footage from another concert in November 2024 in which a member of Kneecap appeared to shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah” – groups which are banned as terrorist organisations in the UK.
Meanwhile, the Irish rap trio’s scheduled performance at the Eden Project, in Cornwall, was cancelled, with a spokesperson for Eden Sessions saying ticket-holders would be contacted directly and refunded.
Three more Kneecap concerts have been cancelled in Germany, BBC News reported.
British ministers also put pressure on the organisers of the Glastonbury Festival over the band’s inclusion in the line-up.
In a statement posted on Instagram, the group, comprising Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Caireallain and JJ Ó Dochartaigh, addressed the families of Conservative MP Sir David Amess and Labour MP Jo Cox, both of whom were murdered, saying “we never intended to cause you hurt” and said they “reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual”.
It added: “Kneecap’s message has always been – and remains – one of love, inclusion, and hope. This is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes and cultures and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our gigs. No smear campaign will change that.”
They said they have “never supported” Hamas or Hezbollah.
Labour MP Ms Cox was stabbed and shot in 2016 while Tory Sir David was stabbed to death in 2021.
The daughter of Mr Amess, Katie Amess, suggested the trio had been “badly advised” because the statement was “deflection and excuses and gaslighting”.
She also said that it would be “very dangerous” for the group to perform at Glastonbury.
British prime minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: “They should apologise. I think you have seen what they have said, I think it is half-hearted.
“We completely reject in the strongest possible terms the comments that they’ve made, particularly in relation to MPs and intimidation as well as obviously the situation in the Middle East.
“It’s right that the police are looking into these videos.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday, the band’s manager, Daniel Lambert, said: “We’re in the space now of moral hysteria and moral outrage, and you have a band being held to a higher moral account than politicians who are ignoring international law.”
He added: “The idea that that was incitement of violence against an MP is ludicrous. It was taken entirely out of context. They are performers as part of performance.
“If you were to look at dozens of comedians globally and you were to take the script of their comedy act and remove six words from a comedy act and then lay it out in a headline and say that this was dangerous, you could do that to dozens of people.
“This was a concerted campaign and the aim of this campaign is really important. It’s not about Kneecap. This has nothing to do with Kneecap or something that Kneecap may or may not have said, it’s solely about de-platforming artists.
“It’s about telling the next young band, both through the music industry and through the political class, that you can’t speak about Palestine.”
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