Massive Attack have spoken out in support of Kneecap following the controversy at Coachella.
They say the backlash the Irish group faced for supporting Palestine is a distraction from the real issue — the ongoing war in Gaza and what they describe as a genocide of Palestinians.
In their statement, the trip-hop pioneers said they’ve long spoken out against what they call Israel’s “illegal occupation, apartheid system, and killing with impunity of thousands of Palestinians.” They added that this has made them “hyper aware of both the human cost of political silence and the risks of publicly standing with oppressed people.”
Massive Attack went on: “But do politicians and right-wing journalists strategically concocting moral outrage over the stage uttering of a young punk band, while simultaneously obfuscating or even ignoring a genocide happening in real time (including the killing of journalists in unprecedented numbers) have any right to intimidate festival events into acts of political censorship? Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story.”
They also criticised the British government’s “silence, acquiescence, and support of those crimes against humanity,” calling that “the real story.”
They ended their statement with: “Solidarity with all artists with the moral courage to speak out against Israeli war crimes, and the ongoing persecution and slaughter of the Palestinian people.”
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Kneecap, a group from Belfast in Northern Ireland, are used to controversy, mostly over their left-wing, Irish republican views. Until now, most of that backlash had stayed within the UK and Ireland. But support for Palestine has long been part of their message — and at Coachella, they took it to a global stage.
During their second weekend set, Kneecap projected messages that read: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” and, “It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.” The final screen read, “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.” (Kneecap later said a similar message shown during weekend one was removed from the Coachella livestream.)
Since then, they’ve faced backlash from pro-Israel groups and supporters. While they’ve stood by their message, the group issued a statement on April 28 denying claims they support Hamas or Hezbollah. They said the allegations came from “establishment figures” who “combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria” and try to silence them.
“We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay,” they said. “We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history,” referring to the long history of violence in Northern Ireland.
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