Bob Vylan rejects criticism and says it’s being targeted for speaking up about Gaza at Glastonbury

LONDON (AP) – Rap-punk duo Bob Vylan on Tuesday rejected claims of antisemitism over onstage comments at the Glastonbury Festival that triggered a police investigation and sparked criticism from politicians, the BBC and festival organizers.

The band said in a statement that it was being “targeted for speaking up” about the war in Gaza.

Police are investigating whether a crime was committed when frontman Bob Vylan led the audience in chants of “Death to the IDF” – the Israel Defense Forces – during the band’s set at the festival in southwest England on Saturday.

The British government called the chants “appalling hate speech” and the BBC said it regretted livestreaming the “antisemitic sentiments.” U.S. authorities revoked the musicians’ visas.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has inflamed tensions around the world, triggering pro-Palestinian protests in many capitals and on college campuses. Israel and some supporters have described the protests as antisemitic, while critics say Israel uses such descriptions to silence opponents.

In a statement on Instagram, Bob Vylan said: “We are not for the death of jews, arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. … A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.”

Alleging that “we are a distraction from the story,” the duo added: “We are being targeted for speaking up.”

The BBC is under pressure to explain why it did not cut the feed of the performance after the anti-IDF chants. Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said “the airing of vile Jew-hatred” by the BBC was a moment of “national shame.”

“It should trouble all decent people that now, one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary, for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is, but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it,” he wrote on X.

Avon and Somerset Police said it is investigating Bob Vylan’s performance, along with that by Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap, whose pro-Palestinian stance has also attracted controversy. Kneecap member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been charged under Britain’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.

Since the war began in October 2023 with a Hamas attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people, Israel has killed more than 56,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.