DUBLIN, April 29 — Irish rappers Kneecap should “urgently clarify” their stance on support for Hamas and Hezbollah, Irish prime minister Micheal Martin said yesterday as a row deepened over political messaging at the band’s concerts.
Martin’s comments came after a video emerged of the Belfast rap trio at a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
UK police said Sunday it was examining the clip, along with a footage from a 2024 concert in London in which a member of the band appeared to shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
Both groups are banned as terrorist organisations in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.
Martin told reporters in Dublin that both Hamas and Hezbollah “participated in terrorist activities and appalling killings and it is vital that Kneecap make it clear they do not support them”.
“I think they need to urgently clarify that,” he said.
Kneecap has also courted criticism during an ongoing tour due to hardline anti-Israel slogans and chants at the gigs.
Sharon Osborne, a British television presenter, urged the revocation of their US work visas after their performance at California’s Coachella, one of the world’s highest-profile music festivals, on April 18.
Messages displayed on a screen behind the band as it performed included “F*** Israel. Free Palestine” and “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
The group also led the audience in chants of “free, free Palestine”.
One of the trio wore a keffiyeh scarf, a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
The 72-year-old Osborne, a former judge on the X Factor talent show, blasted Kneecap’s “aggressive political statements” and alleged that Kneecap turned Coachella “into a Hamas fan club”.
“(Our) statements aren’t aggressive. Murdering 20,000 children is though,” the band, who rap in both the Irish and English languages, said in a statement sent to AFP.
The war in Gaza followed an attack in Israel by Hamas operatives on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has caused a humanitarian crisis and killed at least 52,243 people, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The United Nations considers the figures reliable. — AFP
