"Death, death to the IDF": the comments of certain rappers at the English Glastonbury festival cause emotion and controversy

On Saturday, during their performance on the festival's West Holts stage, one of the two members of Bob Vylan—whose singers go by the pseudonyms Bobbie Vylan and Bobby Vylan —called on the crowd to chant "Death, death to the IDF," the Israeli Defense Forces.

Their concert was broadcast live by the BBC on its dedicated festival platform.

Local police said on X that they were reviewing videos of their performance " to determine whether any offenses may have been committed that warrant a criminal investigation."

"It was awful, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury need to explain how we were able to see such a spectacle on our screens ," Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky News on Sunday.

Faced with the controversy, the festival organizers also condemned these comments on Sunday.

"We are appalled... their slogans have gone way over the top and we urgently remind everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for anti-Semitism, hate speech or incitement to violence," the festival said on social media on Sunday.

The Israeli embassy had earlier denounced on X "the hateful and inflammatory rhetoric" expressed during the festival, denouncing "the normalization of extremist language and the glorification of violence."

"deeply offensive"

This year's Glastonbury Festival was under scrutiny due to the announced presence of Northern Irish rap group Kneecap, one of whose three members, Liam O'Hanna, was charged with a "terrorist offense" for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert.

Taking to the stage shortly after Bob Vylan, they accused Israel of being a "war criminal" state and reiterated their support for the Palestinians, repeatedly chanting "Free Palestine" and calling on the crowd to repeat insults aimed at Keir Starmer.

Many spectators waved Palestinian flags at the popular festival, which attracted more than 200,000 people in 2024 and whose ticket price was 373.50 pounds (437.5 euros) for the 2025 edition.

Before their performance, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was "inappropriate" for them to perform at the festival, but organizers kept their presence.

"People who don't like the politics of the event can go elsewhere," said Michael Eavis, co-founder of the Somerset festival in southwest England, in an article published in a free newspaper for festival-goers.

Faced with pressure, the BBC, a partner of the event since 1997, had indicated that the group's performance would not be broadcast live but that it would probably be available on demand afterwards.

A spokesperson for the Department for Culture said that Minister Lisa Nandy had spoken to the BBC's director general about the Bob Vylan concert.

For its part, the BBC acknowledged that some of the comments made by the duo were "deeply offensive" and that their concert would not be accessible on its platforms.

Asked about the Israeli embassy's response, Minister Wes Streeting called on the embassy to "clean up its own house" and "take more seriously the violence of its own citizens against Palestinians ," referring in particular to violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

He also denounced the humanitarian situation in Gaza, due to the Israeli military reprisals launched in the wake of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

These reprisals left more than 56,412 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas government's Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.