UK Law Weekly asked ‘Is chanting “Death to the IDF” legal?’
Anyone who was worried that punk is dead only had to tune in to Bob Vylan’s set at Glastonbury this weekend to find out that that was not the case, it stated.
A raucous set where the crowd joined in with chants of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ prompted a poorly worded apology from festival organisers, left the BBC red-faced and led to calls for prosecution from the Shadow Home Secretary.
It is difficult to remember a time when attempted censorship of artistic free speech was quite so rigorous.
It added, (the UK) Parliament is still in session and the government is facing widespread rebellion from its own MPs over cuts to welfare, and yet ministers are spending their time telling media outlets which bands they think should and should not be allowed to perform at a music festival in Somerset.
Meanwhile, the BBC went to so much effort removing Kneecap from its Glastonbury coverage over impartiality concerns that it ended up broadcasting Bob Vylan’s set live in its entirety.
If the chants were for the death of the Russian military or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, there is simply no chance that the uproar or condemnation would have been as loud or pronounced.
It is only because Israel is a supposed ally of the UK and because there are heightened concerns around antisemitism when discussing this issue, that the BBC and other broadcasters feel the need to tiptoe around something that is so obviously a genocide to anyone with eyes to see.
As Bob Vylan shared on a large screen behind them during the performance: “Free Palestine. United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a conflict.”
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