Bob Vylan have claimed they are being “targeted for speaking up” after their “death, death to the IDF” chant at Glastonbury was described as anti-Semitic and prompted a police investigation.

Rapper Pascal Robinson-Foster chanted the phrase during a performance at the festival over the weekend that was broadcast live by the BBC.

Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, said the problem should have been foreseeable and constituted “a problem of leadership” for the BBC, while Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, described it as a “time of national shame”.

In a statement on Tuesday, Bob Vylan, a rap duo, group said: “Today, a good many people would have you believe a punk band is the number one threat to world peace. Last week, it was a Palestine pressure group, the week before that it was another band.

“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. A machine whose own soldiers were told to use “unnecessary lethal force” against innocent civilians waiting for aid. A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.

“We, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story. And whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction.”