The UK government said on Sunday that the BBC had questions to answer over anti-Israel chants by musicians at the Glastonbury music festival that police are probing.
UK officers are studying videos of rapper Bobby Vylan leading crowds in chants of “Death, death to the IDF,” the acronym for the Israeli army, during his set on Saturday.
They are also examining comments by outspoken Irish rap trio Kneecap, one of whose members wore a T-shirt dedicated to Palestine Action Group, which is about to be banned under UK terror laws.
The IDF chants, condemned by the Israeli embassy in London, were broadcast on the BBC, which airs coverage of Britain’s most popular music festival.
“I thought it’s appalling, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens,” UK minister Wes Streeting told Sky News.
The Israeli embassy said in a statement late Saturday that it was “deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival.”
But Streeting, Labour’s health secretary, also took aim at the embassy, telling it to “get your own house in order.”
“I think there’s a serious point there by the Israeli embassy. I wish they’d take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously,” he said, citing settler violence in the West Bank.
Streeting made similar remarks in an interview with the BBC.
The government said Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has spoken to the BBC director general about Vylan’s performance.
The BBC said it issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” during the livestream.
A spokesperson for the BBC said some of the comments by Vylan, part of British duo Bob Vylan, were “deeply offensive” and the broadcaster had “no plans to make the performance available on demand.”
Streeting was referring to an incident last week in which settlers reportedly attacked the West Bank village of Kafr Malik, torching cars and buildings. During clashes with IDF troops who arrived on the scene, three Palestinians were killed.
Amid the anti-Israel rhetoric from some of the performers at the music festival, which draws some 200,000 people annually, some in the crowd used the tradition of waving large flags during performances as an opportunity to draw attention to the plight of the hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.
They also drew attention to the victims of the October 7 massacre at the Nova music festival, where some 380 people were brutally killed.
One image circulating online showed a black flag with a yellow ribbon emblazoned on it waving above a flag reading “We Will Dance Again” — the name of a documentary about the Nova festival massacre.
Avon and Somerset police said Saturday that video evidence would be assessed by officers “to determine whether any offenses may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”
Kneecap, who have made headlines in recent months with its pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel stance, led crowds in a chant against UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Starmer had said the band should not perform after its member Liam O’Hanna, known by his stage name Mo Chara, was charged with a terror offense.
O’Hanna appeared in court earlier this month accused of having displayed a Hezbollah flag while saying “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” after a video resurfaced of a London concert last year.
The Iran-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and the Palestinian terror group Hamas are banned in the UK, and it is an offense to express support for them.
O’Hanna has denied the charge and told the Guardian in an interview published Friday that “it was a joke — we’re playing characters.”
Kneecap regularly lead crowds in chants of “Free Palestine” during its concerts. Its fans revere band members for their anti-establishment stance and criticism of British imperialism but critics call them extremists.
The group apologized this year after a 2023 video emerged appearing to show one singer calling for the death of British Conservative lawmakers.