The police suspect the trio of having made remarks encouraging violence against members of the conservative party in 2023 and having supported Hamas during a concert in London last year.
British anti -terrorist police opened on Thursday 1is May an investigation into North Irish rappers of Kneecap, suspected of having made remarks encouraging violence against conservative deputies and supporting Hamas, while several music groups have supported them. Investigators, who examined two concert videos dated 2024 and 2023, announced Thursday 1is May “That there were enough reasons to investigate any offenses” committed by the Belfast group, known for its punk and rebellious attitude, and its support for the Palestinian cause.
On one of the videos broadcast online, one of the rappers seems to cry out “Go Hamas, go the Hezbollah” During a concert in London last year. On the other, dated November 2023, one person declares on stage that a “Good Tory (member of the British Conservative Party) is a dead Tory. Kill your MP “. The leader of Conservatives Kemi Badenoch immediately claimed the group’s ban, and elected officials urged the Glastonbury Festival to deprogram the rappers from the planned edition at the end of June.
The group says it is the victim of a “Slotting campaign”
These recordings were exhumed a few days after the group’s concert at the Californian Coachella festival, where he broadcast messages against Israel which aroused strong reactions. Kneecap has already been dismissed from a festival in Cornwalls (southwest of England), two others in Germany, where three concerts scheduled for September have also been canceled.
Faced with the controversy, the rappers assured Monday, April 28 “Do not support and have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah” et “Condemn all attacks on civilians, still”.
“We also refute the idea that we would seek to encourage violence against a deputy or an individual”they had added. They apologized to the families of two parliamentarians, Labor Jo Cox and the Conservant Amess, murdered in 2016 and 2021, because these families had said they felt injured by their words. The group had also denounced a “Slotting campaign” towards them and a “Instrumentalization” videos “Exit from their context”.
Taste for provocation
Several big names in music like Pulp, Fontaines DC and Massive Attack signed a letter of support to Kneecap on Wednesday, targets according to them of a “Political repression” and a “Clear and concerted attempt at censorship and deprogramming”. “In a democracy, no personality or political party should have the right to dictate who may or may not occur during festivals or concerts”added the signatories, which are also a part of Paul Weller, as well as the Idle, Bice and Primal Scream groups. Trained in Belfast in 2017 and composed of Mo Chara, Moglai Bap and DJ Provai, Kneecap made a name for himself with his punk energy and her concerts with a bubbling, often political atmosphere, where his members appear the masked face of a hood in the colors of the Irish flag.
The trio has acquired global reputation since the release of the survivor’s docu-fiction Kneecap In 2024, awarded at the Sundance Festival and the British Bafta. The group, which released its first album Fine Art in 2024 and sings in English and Irish, defended his language as a cry “Anti -colonialist” Faced with British power. The rappers took advantage of their show at the very media Coachella festival to disseminate messages “Israel commits a genocide against the Palestinian people”, “Fuck Israel, release Palestine” On a giant screen. “We come from Belfast and Derry, Ireland, who are still under British domination”they launched to the public, “But there is another occupation, much worse, at the moment: release Palestine!” »».
The trio, which advocates the reunification of Ireland, had won at the end of November an showdown with the former British conservative government, ulcerated by its positions deemed hostile in the United Kingdom, and which had refused a subsidy.
