WeeklyWorker

03.07.2025
Bob Vylan: heroes, not criminals

Well done Kneecap and Bob Vylan

Stand for solidarity, stand for unrestricted free speech. Anne McShane denounces the witch-hunting of brave artists who have dared use their music to protest against Israeli genocide in Gaza

British rightwing media, the Labour government and the police have united once again to punish those who protest against Israeli genocide. Kneecap has now been joined by the punk rap duo, Bob Vylan, as the object of screaming headlines from the Daily Mail, The Sun and The Daily Telegraph. Simultaneously Labour ministers demand action and the police are reportedly investigating footage and preparing various criminal charges.

Back in May I wrote that Kneecap was facing a possible axing from the Glastonbury line-up. Politicians had been demanding their cancellation.1 Leader of the Commons, Lucy Powell, declared she would boycott the festival if the band was allowed to play. Her threat failed spectacularly. Michael Eavis, founder of the festival, refused to be pushed around, stating that people who did not agree with the politics at Glastonbury “can go somewhere else”. The BBC showed no such courage, announcing in advance that it would not livestream Kneecap.

Bob Vylan then took the fight to livestream. Appearing on the West Holts stage just before Kneecap, they chanted: “Death, death to the IDF”. Thousands responded enthusiastically, loudly protesting against the genocidal Israeli military, the starvation, the murder of more than 80,000 Gazans and the systemic displacement of the population as a whole.

IDF hated

It is little wonder that the IDF is hated - we are all witnesses to its murderous operations. Now it boasts that Hamas is militarily dead and that it directly controls 75% of Gaza … and yet the slaughter continues. The IDF works hand in glove with the macabre entity known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose ‘aid’ depots the UN has described as death traps. The US-backed GHF forces starving people, including the elderly and infirm, to walk miles into militarised zones and fight with each other over aid boxes. Solidarity among Palestinians dissolves in the scramble for food. Then the IDF opens fire on the desperate throng. With no ambulances available many are left to bleed to death outside GHF depots. Thousands return to their families with serious wounds and little, if any, food. None of this is news - even the Israeli press itself has carried reports from individual soldiers being told to shoot Gazan civilians whose only crime is that they are starving.

The IDF commits atrocities every day, every hour. On June 30 a warplane bombed a crowded seaside cafe - Al Baqa. It had survived 20 months of war to provide food and allow Gazans to charge their phones. It was a popular gathering point for families. More than 24 people were killed outright, including children, and many more injured. Malak A Tantesh, reporting from Gaza for The Guardian, wrote of how “witnesses described seeing a dead four-year-old child, an elderly man with both legs severed and many others with severe injuries. Photographs showed pools of blood and flesh amid shattered concrete columns and roofing, as well as a deep crater suggesting the use of a powerful weapon by Israel.” The images of survivors lying on the floor of Nasser Hospital were disturbing for yet another reason - they were all emaciated. Injured people are already seriously unwell. They have been denied food and water by the Israeli blockade.

The Zionist state is consciously starving Palestinians to death on a mass scale. Unicef reported on June 19 that the “number of malnourished children in the Gaza Strip is rising at an alarming rate, with 5,119 children between six months and five years of age admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone”.2 This

represents a nearly 50% increase from the 3,444 children admitted in April 2025 and a 150% increase from February, when a ceasefire was in effect and aid was entering the Gaza Strip in significant quantities. Of the 5,119 children admitted in May, 636 children have severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the most lethal form of malnutrition. These children need consistent, supervised treatment, safe water and medical care to survive - all of which are increasingly scarce in Gaza today.

Gaza is now the hungriest place on earth.

Victimisation

Bob Vylan is to be congratulated for calling out the genocidal IDF. But predictably the duo has been victimised for speaking the truth. The band’s US visas for their forthcoming tour in October have been revoked, with US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau declaring on X that “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country”. Of course, that does not stop Netanyahu travelling there next week and being given a warm welcome at the White House. Imperialist doublespeak twists the ordinary meaning of “violence”. Outspoken musicians who fight with their words are a greater danger than the genocidal prime minister of the Israeli state.

The British media have twisted things even further, with the claim that Bob Vylan was calling for death to Jewish people. In a radio interview on a local station in Cork this week I was actually asked about the consequent safety of the small Jewish population of the city! Of course, it is absolute nonsense to equate the IDF with the entire global Jewish population (many of whom are ardent anti-Zionists). But truth does not stand in the way of a witch-hunt against those who dare speak out.

Bob Vylan is now being investigated by the Avon and Somerset police on ‘public order’ allegations. Meanwhile, Kneecap is again facing police scrutiny, arising out of their Glastonbury appearance. One of them referred to the huge protest outside Westminster magistrates court in support of band member Liam Og O’hAnnaidh (Mo Chara), when he was in court on June 18. Jokingly he called for “a riot” in his support when he is next in court on August 20 - before quickly clarifying: “No riots, just love and support - and support for Palestine.” Despite this clarification the criminal investigation proceeds! Clearly this is about intimidation and not any actual offence.

BBC chiefs are in big trouble for live-streaming Bob Vylan. Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis fumed on X: “This is a time of national shame. The airing of vile Jew-hatred at Glastonbury and the BBC’s belated and mishandled response, brings confidence in our national broadcaster’s ability to treat anti-Semitism seriously to a new low.” The BBC duly hung its head in shame, stating that the “anti-Semitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves”. Doubtless there will be investigations and perhaps resignations.

Meanwhile Bob Vylan clarified: “We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine!” They added: “We are a distraction from the story, and whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction.” Of course, this was ignored. Once again, truth is just an irritating detail to be brushed aside.

The Israeli state and its backers in Washington, London and Europe are united in silencing criticism of the deliberate eradication of a people - a holocaust. Gaza is now a death camp. The British government continues to approve the shipment of parts to the IDF for its F-35 fighter jets. Palestine Action, which sprayed red paint over two RAF planes at Brize Norton air base, are lined up to be banned under terrorism legislation. This putting them on a par with al-Qaeda.

The Daily Mail obligingly leads the attack on Bob Vylan for leading the “sick chant” on the IDF, when “crowds waved Palestine flags and joined the call for the deaths of Israeli soldiers”. The Sun chimes in: “Such is the level of violence and hatred in their lyrics that they have been considered ‘too extreme’ for the band to be officially signed by a major record label, so they trade under their own, which is called Ghost Theatre.”

Bob Vylan are known for using their music to speak out against racism, homophobia and toxic masculinity. They won the best alternative music act at the Mobo Awards in 2022. Glastonbury 2025 saw them hitting the big time, but their brave stance has cost them dearly. It is, of course, their fans that are really feared - the hundreds of thousands of young people who have been politicised firstly by Kneecap and now Bob Vylan, and who could become part of a strong oppositional culture internationally.

Left talk

It is excellent that Socialist Worker and the Morning Star have come out strongly against the witch-hunt. The Star’s editorial on June 30 warned of “how fast our democratic rights are being dismantled”. It mocked the BBC for falling over itself to make amends for Bob Vylan’s attack on the IDF - “Anyone who thinks Vylan’s chants are more ‘appalling’ (the PM’s term) than the government’s continuing supply of arms and intelligence to facilitate mass murder has their priorities wrong.”3 Socialist Worker’s editorial of July 1 agreed that freedom of expression is under unprecedented attack: “If the Labour government gets away with it, it will only embolden it to attack the whole movement. The whole Palestine solidarity movement has to stand against the banning of Palestine Action, defend Kneecap and Bob Vylan and stay on the front foot.”4 It called out: “Everyone should campaign in their workplaces and campuses against the crackdown and attempts to shut down discussions about direct action or support for Palestine Action.”

Of course, unrestricted freedom of expression is essential. The working class needs it like ‘light and air’ to develop its ideas, its cohesion, the strength needed to overthrow this sick, sick society. That means, however, tolerating voices and views we very much disagree with and even find repugnant … something the left needs to fully take on board.

  1. ‘Saying it loud and clear’ Weekly Worker May 15: weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/1538/saying-it-loud-and-clear.↩︎

  2. www.unicef.org/press-releases/more-5000-children-diagnosed-malnutrition-gaza-strip-may.↩︎

  3. morningstaronline.co.uk/article/glastonbury-furore-shows-how-fast-our-freedoms-are-being-dismantled.↩︎

  4. socialistworker.co.uk/sw-view/resist-crackdown-on-palestine-movement.↩︎