Amyl & The Sniffers have decided to make their opinion known on the ongoing controversy which surrounds Kneecap and Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance. For those unaware, Irish band Kneecap had their set blacklisted by the BBC and were accused of supporting terrorism for simply speaking out about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Rapper Bob Vylan responded to this by turning his set into a pro-Palestine parade and in turn, turning himself into a popular media pariah. 

Bob Vylan’s most explosive and controversial statement was his inciting the crowd to chant “Death to the IDF” which is rhetoric that has shocked some Western commentators. These same commentators seem unphased as Palestinian children have their legs blown off waiting in bread lines.  

Apparently, police will now be investigating Bob Vylan to see if his statements elevated to the level of terroristic threats. Frankly, they’re looking to see if they can suppress one more person’s speech for mentioning the atrocities happening in Gaza which The United States is fully complicit in. Glastonbury themselves also bent the knee saying they were “appalled” by Bob Vylan’s statements. 

According to NME Amyl & The Sniffers have now made a public statement in support of Vylan and reaffirming their commitment to ending the genocide in Palestine. They are one of several artists who also made statements (albeit somewhat less explosive ones) in support of the Palestinian struggle during their Glastonbury set. 

The statement reads as follows: 

“The British media in a frenzy about Bob Vylan and Kneecap but artists all weekend at Glastonbury from pop to rock to rap to punk to DJs spoke up onstage and there were tons of flags on every streamed set. Trying to make it look like just a couple of isolated incidents and a couple of ‘bad bands’ so it appears the public isn’t as anti-genocide as it is, and trying to make it look like Bob and Kneecap are one-offs, instead of that the status quo has shifted majorly and that people are concerned and desperate for our governments to listen, And if you don’t want politics in music don’t blame the musicians blame the politicians and journalists, and the political landscape in general, for not doing their job, and there’ll be more and more of to until it stops.”

Photo Credit: Madison Hedgecock