A few years ago I was having a drink with an American friend who plays in a band big enough to headline festivals. He was agonising over whether they should perform in Israel and asked my opinion.
It was interesting timing. I had just returned from a reporting trip to Gaza, during which I had witnessed the brutality of Israeli troops as they killed and maimed protesters. Yet I had also seen how leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad stoked the fury of despairing young people, then I met in secret with a dissident brave enough to confront their despotic and corrupt rule on this tormented strip of land. And before leaving, I had bumped into a mutual friend at the airport – a well-known DJ – who was returning home after playing a show in Tel Aviv.
My response was simple. If musicians were content to play in China despite its genocidal atrocities against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, in Saudi Arabia given its abusive treatment of women, or in Russia after its criminal theft of Crimea, then they should feel comfortable enough playing in a place that – for all its sins -– at least permitted free speech and the opportunity to oust its awful government. Or as the manager of a celebrated African artist once said to me, highlighting the moral complexities inherent in globalisation, why would musicians not play there if they eat Israeli avocados, dates and oranges being grown on occupied Palestinian land?
Since then, of course, Israel’s repression has exploded in both Gaza and the West Bank under its malevolent, self-serving prime minister and his ghastly far-right allies – which was, lest anyone ever forgets, fuelled by a Hamas-led rampage of murder, rape and kidnap of peace-loving people living in left-leaning kibbutzim and joyfully attending a music festival.
Now the entwined issues of music, politics and Palestine have exploded onto front pages. There is outrage over the Glastonbury appearance of Irish rap trio Kneecap – one of the group is accused of allegedly displaying the flag of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah while saying “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” at a gig last year. He has denied the charge.
Kneecap (L) and Bob Vylan (R) performing at Glastonbury (Photos: PA)And now there is a fresh outburst of fury over punk rap duo Bob Vylan leading chants of “Death to the IDF” from West Holts stage. The prime minister has complained, the police are investigating and the BBC is facing wearily-inevitable attack over its live broadcast.
Again, let me state the obvious: showing support for murderous terror groups is pathetic – and a betrayal of those dissidents who dared challenge their hideous hold on Gaza – while calling for the killing of conscripted soldiers from a stage at a music festival taking place in a stable democracy is grotesque and puerile.
Yet the truth is that most people attending this famously liberal event are probably more agitated over Rod Stewart’s expression of support for Nigel Farage – a highly unusual tactic to attract a Glastonbury audience – in the wake of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Not least when these disturbing deeds are being carried out with the complicity of Western governments, most notably the United States but also including our own.
There is nothing new in a fusion of politics, protest and pop music provoking public outrage – nor of artists using provocation as a marketing tool to boost careers – just as many politicians and media figures use similar performative outrage to further their own ambitions.
I have been listening to Andrew Hickey’s brilliant podcast series A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, and as he points out in his laconic style, getting a record banned and attracting notoriety has been a surefire way to have a hit for more than seven decades. This has been the case whether the issue infuriating the establishment involves sex, drugs or politics. Just look at the swollen size of Glastonbury’s crowd at the weekend cheering on Kneecap, or think how happy a pair of cult performers from Ipswich must be with their sudden publicity.
There is, of course, a world of difference between the lyrical anger of Nina Simone and Public Enemy at racial injustice, or the fury over police brutality expressed by Fela Kuti and Kendrick Lamar with such artistic force, and a punk protest singer at Glastonbury calling for the slaughter of the Israeli military and using a slogan often taken as seeking eradication of the world’s only Jewish state.
Yet musicians have a platform, a voice and a history of being in the vanguard of societal change as they express views of younger generations. And these events, however distasteful, reflect a public mood turning against Israel even in the US, where polls have indicated a sharp rise in negative views of the nation with even Republicans under 50 now more likely to hold unfavourable views.
square MEDIA Big ReadBBC turmoil over Glastonbury coverage of Bob Vylan: 'Senior heads should roll'
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The chants of Bob Vylan smack of anti-Semitism and have been rightly condemned as hate speech by festival organiser Emily Eavis. Yet such charges are thrown far too easily in defence of Israel. Behind this outcry, the crass stunts on stages, the Palestinian flags waved by people with minimal understanding of the cause, the keffiyehs worn as labels of leftist identity, lies a generational divide being exposed.
It is being widened by an appalling Israeli prime minister who has been disastrous for his country, its precious democracy and Jewish people around the planet as he stops at nothing in his fight for a personal survival that is spilling so much Palestinian blood, spreading such misery, fostering toxic resentment and taking huge risks with global stability.
Ultimately, I fear this furore shows once again the tribalism, hypocrisy and synthetic arguments that stain our democracy. On one side there are infantile attention-seekers who think they are social justice warriors when siding with some of the world’s worst bigots, racists and mass murderers.
On the other, prominent voices leap to condemn the behaviour of some artists at Glastonbury while staying silent – or even supporting – sickening atrocities and human rights abuses taking place around the world. Both sides are backed by keyboard armies, clashing endlessly on social media.
Yet as recent Glastonbury headliner Elton John once said, nothing is more profound nor more powerful than recognising our common humanity.
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