BBC regrets failing to cut live feed of Bob Vylan’s ‘antisemitic’ chant at Glastonbury

The BBC has expressed regret for not cutting a live broadcast of Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury over the weekend when the band led a crowd in a chant of “death, death to the IDF”.

In a statement issued on Monday, the national broadcaster said: “The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance.

“The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.

“In light of this weekend, we will look at our guidance around live events so we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air.”

Pascal Robinson-Foster, the lead singer the London-based English punk-rap duo Bob Vylan, led thousands of people at the festival’s West Holts stage in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF” on Saturday.

“Hell yeah, form the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, inshallah, it will be free,” he said following the chant.

Bobby Vylan of British duo Bob Vylan performs on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury festival (Credit: OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) [Missing Credit]

The BBC’s former television chief, Danny Cohen, claimed the incident amounted to “the most serious broadcasting failure by the BBC in recent memory” and called on the broadcaster’s director-general Tim Davie to be held directly accountable.

Writing for the Sunday Times over the weekend, Cohen said “tens of thousands chanted for the deaths of Jews” at Glastonbury. “This did not happen in Iran,” he said, “It did not happen at a far-right rally. It happened in Britain and was broadcast live by the BBC.”

He argued: “It takes seconds to [stop the live broadcast] and yet the BBC chose to keep broadcasting. So why was it deemed acceptable for such explicit racism and threats of violence to be broadcast across the nation?

“This is the most serious broadcasting failure by the BBC in recent memory and it is particularly concerning because it involved an issue of racism. The corporation has a habit of holding internal inquiries that report back with soft conclusions. It is time that that changed and Tim Davie, the BBC’s director-general, was held directly accountable.”

He continued: “The BBC should be held to account at the highest level for these failings and Glastonbury should now be understood to be the home of popular chants for the deaths of Jews and racist stories about Zionism told to cheering crowds.”

Danny Cohen worked for the BBC for eight years[Missing Credit]

Echoing his words in print, Cohen said on Sky News on Sunday evening that the corporation’s failure to cut away from the performance sent a “shiver of fear, despair, disgust, and shock” down the spines of the UK’s Jewish community.

Organisers of Glastonbury previously said they were “appalled” by the chants, which “crossed a line”, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who called for an explanation from the BBC, said there was “no excuse” for the “appalling hate speech”.

Ofcom, the government regulatory body, said yesterday it was “very concerned about the live stream of this performance, and the BBC clearly has questions to answer.”