UK police say performances at Glastonbury Festival are subject to criminal investigation

LONDON (AP) – U.K. police announced Monday that the weekend performances by rap punk duo Bob Vylan and Irish-language band Kneecap at the Glastonbury Festival are subject to a criminal investigation after they led crowds in chants calling for “death” to the Israeli military and chants of “Free Palestine.”

Police said the performances at the U.K.’s largest summer music festival “have been recorded as a public order incident.”

Meanwhile. the U.S. State Department said it has revoked the U.S. visas for Bob Vylan after their “hateful tirade at Glastonbury.”

Rapper Bobby Vylan – who until the weekend was relatively little known – led crowds in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF,” the Israel Defense Forces.

The BBC said it regretted livestreaming the performance. “The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves,” it said, adding that it “respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.K. politicians condemned the chants, saying there was no excuse for such “appalling hate speech.”

“Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a social media post.

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.

Starmer said the BBC must explain “how these scenes came to be broadcast.”

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, said it was “very concerned” about the BBC livestream and said the broadcaster “clearly has questions to answer.”

The BBC said earlier in its defense that it had issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” during the livestream.

The Israeli Embassy to the U.K. said over the weekend it was “deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival.”

Bob Vylan, which formed in 2017, have released four albums mixing punk, grime and other styles with lyrics that often address issues including racism, masculinity and politics. Its two members keep their real names secret for privacy reasons.

In a statement posted on social media, singer Bobby Vylan said he was inundated with messages of both support and hatred.

“Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place,” he wrote.

The duo played Saturday afternoon right before Kneecap, another band that has drawn controversy over its stance on Middle East politics. Kneecap led a huge crowd in chants of “Free Palestine” at the festival.

They also aimed an expletive-laden chant at Starmer, who has said he didn’t think it was “appropriate” for Kneecap to play Glastonbury after one of its members was charged under the Terrorism Act. Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.

The acts were among among 4,000 that performed in front of some 200,000 music fans this year at the festival in southwest England.

Israel has faced heavy international criticism for its war conduct in Gaza. In May, the U.K., France and Canada issued a sharply worded statement calling for Israel to stop its “egregious” military actions in Gaza and criticizing Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank.

More than 6,000 people have been killed and more than 20,000 injured in Gaza since Israel ended a ceasefire in March.

Since the war began in October 2023 with a Hamas attack on Israel, Israeli attacks have killed more than 56,000 people and injured 132,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but has said that women and children make up more than half the dead.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians, because they operate in populated areas.