A hysterical witch hunt has ensued against Irish rap group Kneecap. Both in Britain and Ireland, the ‘horrible violence’ of Kneecap’s words have been condemned by the mainstream media and politicians.
Starmer’s government has described their words as “unacceptable” and threatened to withdraw government arts funding from the group.
Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has called for prosecution, and DUP leader Gavin Robinson has accused Kneecap of committing a “hate crime”!
Good.
Kneecap’s glorification of terrorism and anti-British hatred has no place in our society.
Now footage shows one of them saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
After the murder of Sir David Amess, this demands prosecution. https://t.co/hfOxFLvQqS
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) April 28, 2025
Alongside this, there has been a campaign to prevent Kneecap from performing at festivals over the summer.
What exactly then has the rap group done to warrant such a disproportionate response?
The band’s manager Daniel Lambert explained the controversy in an interview with RTE:
“A video didn’t ‘emerge’, there was a concerted campaign emanating from the US to analyse everything Kneecap have ever said in seven years of performances…
Why this happened is around what they said at Coachella. And what it is, is a message aimed at governments enabling the genocide in Gaza and what really really scared the state of Israel and what led to this campaign was the reaction of young people in america, young people who arent willing to support a genocide and young people who have empathy and sympathy for the Palestinian people”
That is precisely what has happened.
At a recent performance in America, the band interrupted their set to display the message:
“Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people”
“It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes”
“Fuck Israel Free Palestine”
The crowd responded to this with cheers and chants of “Free Free Palestine”.
What the thousands of young Americans at Coachella think about genocide 👇👏 pic.twitter.com/vczKexZOF9
— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 27, 2025
This sort of activism is nothing out of the ordinary for the group. To speak plainly, they have embarrassed the British, Irish, and American ruling classes.
Now they dig up quotes from years ago in an attempt to smear the group as terrorist supporters.
The criticism of Kneecap therefore has nothing to do with ‘defending democracy’ or ‘inciting violence’, and everything to do with the fact that they loudly and boldly tell the truth to the people in power and have yet to capitulate to bourgeois public opinion.
It is precisely this which makes Kneecap so popular among the youth.
Because of the complete political vacuum that exists, Kneecap have to a certain degree been able to become a focal point against the rotten establishment.
Let’s be clear, the Kneecap lads have nothing to apologise for. The whole point of this smear campaign is to force a grovelling apology to undermine their support.
Rank hypocrisy
These ‘lovers of peace’ in the British, Irish, and American ruling classes have shown no remorse in unleashing state violence against pro-Palestine protesters, who are calling out an actual genocide that has killed upwards of 50,000 people and ethnically cleansed two million – most of them defenceless children.
As the band’s manager eloquently explained:
‘‘We’re in the space now of moral hysteria and moral outrage and we have a band being held to a higher moral account than politicians who are ignoring international law… Children are starving to death, and we’re spending six or seven days speaking about Kneecap. We spent less than a day speaking about fifteen executed medics!”
To the best of our knowledge, Kneecap have not been responsible for a single death. The same cannot be said, however, of the majority of politicians, who are guilty not only of war crimes and supporting terrorist regimes, but also of social murder through austerity at home.
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Recently, the British government has committed to slashing disability benefits which will condemn thousands of vulnerable people to their deaths.
The austerity policies implemented since 2008 have led to an excess 335,000 deaths. The bungling of the Covid pandemic by the Tories led to 150,000 excess deaths.
Ireland is not an imperialist power itself, but its government is slavishly loyal to western imperialism.
Nearly 1 million people live in poverty and 15,000 are forced to sleep on the streets. And yet, the government’s top priority has been beefing up Ireland’s military, and removing limits to the scope of Irish military intervention.
At the same time, while claiming to condemn Israel’s genocide, they have facilitated the US shipping weapons to Israel through Shannon airport.
Unfortunately, it would require a book of a thousand volumes to document all the horrific crimes of western imperialism – and British imperialism in particular.
It is therefore the most stinking hypocrisy that the leaders of one of the most blood-soaked empires in human history are giving lectures on morality and the principles of ‘non-violence’.
The whole of the British establishment trying to silence @KNEECAPCEOL for saying what the rest of us think.
If you want to talk about terrorists and killers, lets go straight to No.10 and the White House. That’s the truth. pic.twitter.com/xEPp36BQR3
— Fiona Lali (@fiona_lali) April 30, 2025
We extend our full solidarity to Kneecap and call on all those who oppose this violent capitalist system to join the fight to overthrow the billionaire class!
