A group of British and Irish artists, including Massive Attack and Kneecap, has announced an alliance on social media for musicians to speak out together against the war in Gaza.
The artists say have had to deal with ‘aggressive campaigns’ of pro-Israeli interest groups and repercussions of the music industry after they led themselves on stage about Gaza. They mainly call on starting artists to join. “We don’t want to watch how other artists […] The silence is imposed. “
One of the organizations that in the joint post UK Lawyers for Israel (Ukli) is mentioned on Instagram. This organization reported, among other things, a report against Poppunk duo Bob Vylan after the group during a performance at the Glastonbury festival last June “Death, Death to the IDF ” (‘Death to the Israeli army’) called and let the audience scander. Ukli also reported BBC, which broadcast the performance.
Performances canceled
The British police have launched a criminal investigation into the festival show, after which various performances by the punk group were canceled. The shows that Bob Vylan would do in September as a supporting act for Gogol Bordello in Poppodia Paradiso in Amsterdam and were canceled in Tilburg in 013. After the cancellation, the Dutch pop stages still programmed their own concert by Bob Vylan.
The alliance says it stands for the free access of aid organizations in Gaza, a permanent ceasefire and an end to the British arms deliveries to Israel.
Massive Attack-that at the beginning of July the main stage of Festival Down the Rabbit Hole closed with a ‘Hyper-activist show’-says in a statement The Guardian That the action originated from solidarity with artists who are concerned about the use of their platforms “because of censorship from industry” and the threat of legal action. “The intention is clear: to silence them.”