Irish rap group Kneecap defies objectors with ‘free Palestine’ chants at Paris gig

The Irish rap group Kneecap, one of whose members faces a British terror charge for allegedly supporting Hezbollah, repeated its criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza during a performance outside Paris on Sunday, despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.

The concert, which began shortly before 6:30 p.m. (1630 GMT), in front of several thousand people, in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud, went ahead in the face of complaints from the Belfast trio’s critics.

The band claimed a group of “Zionists” tried to interrupt the beginning of their performance with whistles. The individuals were taken away by security.

“Free, free Palestine!” the trio shouted at the start of their show, rallying an enthusiastic crowd where keffiyehs and Irish jerseys were visible.

After organizers kept the politically outspoken band on the program, local authorities withdrew their subsidies for the music festival where the gig took place — the annual Rock en Seine festival.

The group from Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, has made a habit of using their concerts to canvas for the Palestinian cause, strongly backing the Palestinian cause and bitterly criticizing Israel.

A group of Zionists with flags and whistles tried to interrupt the start of our gig in Paris just now.

“We’re not like them. We’re not like Israel. We’re not here to cause fights. It’s all love it’s all support for Palestine.” pic.twitter.com/EYLB7ouwHo

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) August 24, 2025

Liam O’Hanna, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged in England in May, accused of displaying a flag of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah during a London concert in November.

They played a closely scrutinized concert at the Glastonbury Festival in June, where Chara declared: “Israel are war criminals.”

The group later missed playing at the Sziget Festival in Budapest after being barred from entering the country by the Hungarian authorities, a close ally of Israel.

Kneecap, which also supports Irish republicanism and criticizes British imperialism, has sparked widespread debate in the UK and Ireland, more than two-and-a-half decades after the peace agreement that aimed to end the conflict over the status of Northern Ireland.

The group takes its name from the deliberate shooting of the limbs, known as “kneecapping,” carried out by Irish republicans as punishment attacks during the decades of unrest.

‘Confident’

“We are confident that the group will perform in the correct manner,” Matthieu Ducos, director of Rock en Seine, told AFP ahead of the festival.

The municipality of Saint-Cloud, for the first time, withdrew its 40,000-euro ($47,000) subsidy from Rock en Seine.

The wider Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, also canceled its funding for the 2025 edition.

However, such moves do not jeopardize the viability of the festival, whose budget was between 16 million and 17 million euros this year.

The group has already played twice in France this summer — at the Eurockeennes festival in Belfort and the Cabaret Vert in Charleville-Mézières — both times without incident.

But Sunday’s concert came against a backdrop of concerns about alleged high levels of antisemitism in France in the wake of the Hamas-led massacre on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that triggered the war in Gaza, and Israel’s devastating retaliatory assault on the Hamas-ruled territory.

“They are desecrating the memory of the 50 French victims of Hamas on October 7, as well as all the French victims of Hezbollah,” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), who had called for the concert to be canceled.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said vigilance would be required against “any comments of an antisemitic nature, apology for terrorism or incitement to hatred” at the event.

Ahead of the Kneecap performance, AFP obtained a letter from US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner to French President Emmanuel Macron in which he denounced his government’s action against antisemitism as insufficient, days after similar remarks from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kushner’s letter to Macron was dated August 25, which he noted was “the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil” under Nazi German occupation.

He wrote: “I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it…

“In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized,” he added.

While “antisemitism has long scarred French life,” the ambassador argued that hatred of Jews “has exploded since Hamas’s barbaric assault on October 7, 2023.”

His remarks tallied with those made by Netanyahu, who on Tuesday accused Macron of fomenting antisemitism, saying it had “surged” in France following the French president’s announcement last month that he will recognize Palestinian statehood.

Macron’s Elysee office was quick to hit back at Netanyahu, calling his allegation “abject” and “erroneous.”

But like Netanyahu, Kushner denounced Macron’s criticisms of Israel over the war in Gaza and his planned recognition of a State of Palestine. Such moves, he said, “embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France.

“In today’s world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism — plain and simple,” the ambassador added.

“Surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all.

“What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?”

France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population, at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Both communities have reported a spike in hate crimes since the beginning of the war.