Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has strongly condemned the “Death to the IDF” chanting led by punk duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury festival last weekend.
Nandy told MPs in a statement on Monday night: “There is a clear difference between speaking out for Palestine, which is the right of everybody in this House and everybody in our country, and antisemitism, which is not and never will be. When the rights and safety of people and communities are at risk and when our national broadcaster fails to uphold its own standards, we will intervene.”
Discussing the BBC’s failure to stop the live broadcast of the offensive chants, and in response to a question about Bob Vylan’s actions, she said: “Many colleagues will know that in Israel, there is a conscription model. Every young person is required to serve in the IDF, which means that chanting ‘death to the IDF’ is equivalent to calling for the death of every single Israeli Jew. That is one of the many reasons why we take this so seriously and why it cannot be argued that this did not cross a very dangerous line.”
The culture secretary also revealed that she spoke to the BBC’s director general on Saturday evening, shortly after their performance, to demand “an explanation and what immediate steps the BBC leadership intended to take”.
Although she welcomed the apology by the BBC, she said that some outstanding questions remained. She said: “Why the performance was broadcast live given concerns regarding other acts in the weeks preceding the festival; why the feed was not immediately cut when the chants of ‘death to the IDF’ began; and what due diligence was done prior to the decision to broadcast this particular act to the nation.”
Several other MPs were keen criticise the handling of the chanting.
Shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew described the chants as “a disgraceful affront to the Jewish community and a violation of the BBC’s own public charter to entertain without undermining the fundamental values of our society”.
The Conservative MP also said that the incident raised questions about the culture within the BBC.
“This is a broadcaster that has time and again given airtime to representatives and supporters of Hamas, while refusing to clearly identify the group as what it is: a terrorist organisation. The BBC has repeatedly failed to call out antisemitic rhetoric when it emerges under the guise of political commentary, and has faced serious allegations of minimising attacks on Jewish communities.”
Liberal Democrat spokesperson Max Wilkinson lamented that “rather than devoting our attention today to how this House can push for a just and sustainable resolution to the horrors of the conflict in the Middle East, we are talking about something else”, adding that “there can simply be no place for hate speech, antisemitism and incitement to violence, at Glastonbury or anywhere else”.
Hamas’ massacre of nearly 400 people at the Nova festival on October 7 was raised by Labour’s Peter Prinsley.
The MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, who is Jewish, told the Commons: “The murder of hundreds of Jews at the Nova music festival in October 2023 sparked this war, and the irony of broadcasting antisemitism at Glastonbury here in the UK is not lost on any of us.”
He went on to ask: “How are Jews in this country, such as myself, to be reassured about editorial processes at the BBC, and who on earth will be held accountable for this error?”
Nandy also hit back at a pro-Gaza MP who used the occasion to criticise racist chants by Israeli football fans last year. Ayoub Khan had said: “Although we have had a ministerial statement today, we had no ministerial statement when that chanting happened.”
The culture secretary countered saying that she was making a statement because “our national broadcaster, funded by the licence fee that is paid by the public, has broadcast something that is deeply offensive to a community in this country, and that has made many, many people feel unsafe, and may actually have made them unsafe”.
Nandy also attacked Khan’s apparent equivocation on condemning the chants: “As a long-standing supporter of justice for the Palestinians, I say to him that he does nothing for the Palestinian cause by aligning himself with antisemites.”
Earlier today, Avon and Somerset police announced that they had placed Bob Vylan and Irish-nationalist band Kneecap under investigation following their performances.
The investigation into Kneecap is understood to centre on one of its members allegedly calling for a “riot” when bandmate Mo Chara – real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – returns to court in August on terrorism charges.
Also today, Deputy US Secretary of State Christopher Landau said that punk duo Bob Vylan’s visas would be revoked in light of their tirade at Glastonbury.
"Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” he said in a post on X.
