Dozens of Irish and UK music acts have signed an open letter in support of Kneecap, the Belfast rap group at the centre of controversy this week.
Kneecap is being investigated by counterterrorism police in the UK following videos allegedly showing members calling for the deaths of British MPs and shouting “Up Hamas, up Hizbullah”.
In the open letter, the group’s record label, Heavenly Recordings, said there had been a “clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform” the band.
Paul Weller, Christy Moore, Primal Scream, Damien Dempsey and Annie Macmanus (DJ Annie Mac) are among the artists who signed the letter.
“Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story,” the letter notes.
“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.”
A number of Kneecap’s gigs have been cancelled and UK ministers have sought to put pressure on Glastonbury’s organisers to halt the band’s performance at the festival in June.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Massive Attack also came to Kneecap’s defence.
“If senior politicians can find neither the time, nor the words to condemn, say, the murder of 15 voluntary aid workers in Gaza, or the illegal starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare, or the killing of thousands and thousands of children in the same territory, by a state in possession of the highest precision weapons on earth; how much notice should a music festival take of their moral advice on booking performing acts?” the band wrote.
Massive Attack added that language “of course” matters.
“The hideous murders of elected politicians Jo Cox and David Amess means there’s no scope for flippancy or recklessness.
“But do politicians and right-wing journalists strategically concocting moral outrage over the stage utterings of a young punk band, while simultaneously obfuscating or even ignoring a genocide happening in real time (including the killing of journalists in unprecedented numbers) have any right to intimidate festival events into acts of political censorship?”
Footage from a November 2023 concert appears to show a member of Kneecap saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
In a statement on Monday, Kneecap expressed their “heartfelt apologies” to the families of Mr Amess, a Conservative MP who was murdered in 2021, and Ms Cox, a Labour MP who was murdered in 2016.
However, the Amess and Cox families said the band’s statement did not go far enough and called for a fuller apology.
In the statement, Kneecap said its members did not support Hamas or Hizbullah, or condone violence. The band said they had been subjected to a “smear campaign” because of their vocal support of Palestine.
