The Northern Irish hip-hop group Kneecap responded on Friday to criticism over their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel messaging during their Coachella set earlier this month, calling the backlash a “coordinated smear campaign.”
The group, which has been vocal about its view of the conflict in Gaza, performed their set during the festival in front of a screen featuring the words “F— Israel, Free Palestine.”
The group claimed in a post on X after the festival’s first weekend that organizers subsequently censored the livestream of their performance. While it was not broadcast online, images of the onstage message circulated across social media, prompting outrage online.
Tribe of Nova, the organizers behind Israel’s Nova Music Festival where Hamas launched a deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that left 1,200 people dead, said Kneecap’s messaging “deeply hurt many in our community.” The organization invited band members to “visit the Nova Exhibition and experience firsthand the stories of those who were murdered, those who survived, and those who are still being held hostage.”
Kneecap said in an X post Friday: “Those attacking us want to silence criticism of a mass slaughter. They weaponize false accusations of antisemitism to distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide.”
“We do not give a f*ck what religion anyone practices,” the group continued. “We know there are massive numbers of Jewish people outraged by this genocide just as we are. What we care about is that governments of the countries we perform in are enabling some of the most horrific crimes of our lifetimes — and we will not stay silent.”
The group’s statement comes one week after Coachella wrapped, and amid calls from some critics for the band to be reprimanded by U.S. officials.
Among the more vocal critics was Sharon Osbourne, a TV personality and the wife of heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, who accused Kneecap of hate speech and said the U.S. should revoke the group’s work visas.
“While festivals like Coachella showcase remarkable talent from around the globe, music’s primary purpose is to unite people,” Osbourne, who said she’s of Irish Catholic and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, wrote in a lengthy post on X on Tuesday. “It should not be a venue for promoting terrorist organizations or spreading hate.”
She said while she respects artists’ “right to exercise their opinions,” Kneecap “took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements.”
According to the BBC, during the band’s second weekend performance, the band led a crowd in a “free Palestine” chant, and band member Mo Chara touched on the conflict.
“The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the… skies with nowhere to go,” Chara said to the audience. “The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”
More than 50,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Osbourne said Goldenvoice, the organizers behind the Indio, California,-based festival, should not have allowed them to perform again after seeing their first weekend performance.
“This behavior raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA,” she added, calling on people to join her in “advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa.”
Goldenvoice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
