Kneecap converse out on Hamas, Hezbollah, violence towards MPs after “distortion” and “avalanche of concern and condemnation”

• READ MORE: Kneecap on the quilt – giving peace, protest and partying an opportunity

Yesterday (April 28) Kneecap confronted calls from politicians to take away them from a number of upcoming competition dates – together with Glastonbury and TRNSMT – after it was revealed earlier this week that counter-terror police are assessing footage from the band’s London present final November.

Footage from that present seems to depict a member of Kneecap yelling out “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”, whereas displaying a Hezbollah flag. Each Hamas and Hezbollah are proscribed terror organisations, as listed by the UK authorities – it is usually an offence beneath the Terrorism Act 2000 to “invite assist for a proscribed organisation”.

Reviews then revealed that police have since begun assessing a second video from one among their gigs, which purportedly exhibits the group calling for the dying of Conservative MPs. In response, Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead David Taylor and Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney have made public requires the removing of Kneecap from a number of summer time competition performances.

Late final night time (April 28) the Irish rap trio took to X/Twitter to share the next assertion, addressing their alleged assist of Hamas, Hezbollah and selling violence towards MPs: “They need you to consider phrases are extra dangerous than genocide.”

The trio continued: “Allow us to be unequivocal: we don’t, and have by no means, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all assaults on civilians, all the time. It’s by no means okay. We all know this greater than anybody, given our nation’s historical past. We additionally reject any suggestion that we might search to incite violence towards any MP or particular person. Ever. An extract of footage, intentionally taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it have been a name to motion.”

Thus far, the group’s Mo Chara stated the next of their NME The Cover story in June 2024: “Clearly I can’t converse for what occurred earlier than me,” sharing his sympathy for what previous generations of Irishmen went by. “However we don’t assist violence as that doesn’t make any sense any extra.”

Elsewhere of their latest deal with, Kneecap went on to label the “distortion” of their messages as “absurd” and “a clear effort to element the actual dialog”. As a substitute, they counsel that “actual anger and outrage needs to be directed in the direction of” the “highly effective in Britain” who’ve “abetted slaughter and famine,” claiming “the British authorities continues to provide arms to Israel, even after the scores of NHS docs warned Keir Starmer in August that youngsters have been being systematically executed with sniper photographs to the top.”

KNEECAP STATEMENT:

They need you to consider phrases are extra dangerous than genocide.

Institution figures, determined to silence us, have combed by a whole lot of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of phrases from months or years in the past to fabricate ethical…

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 28, 2025

Kneecap additionally addressed the Amess and Cox households, who not too long ago condemned the band of “inciting violence”: “We ship our heartfelt apologies, we by no means supposed to trigger you damage.”

Doubling down on their stance, they wrote: “Kneecap’s message has all the time been – and stays – one among love, inclusion, and hope. This is the reason our music resonates throughout generations, nations, courses and cultures and has introduced a whole lot of hundreds of individuals at our gigs. No smear marketing campaign will change that.”

“The true crimes should not in our performances; the actual crimes are the silence and complicity of these in energy. Disgrace on them,” they wrote to finish their deal with.

Kneecap’s message to the Amess and Cox households is in reference to Labour MP Jo Cox and Conservative MP David Amess being murdered in 2016 and 2021 respectively. Following video footage of Kneecap’s gigs being assessed in counter-terrorism investigations, the Jo Cox basis yesterday shared an announcement on X/Twitter condemning the band, writing that they’d “clearly” crossed a line “from political expression to inciting violence”.

Equally, the daughter of late Conservative MP Amess advised the BBC she was “gobsmacked on the stupidity of someone or a gaggle of individuals being within the public eye and saying such harmful, violent rhetoric”, including that the band ought to make apologies to her “and each different person who has been offended by this”.

In response to information of the counter-terrorism investigation, Kneecap shared a publish on X of a graphic which learn, “18 Months Of Genocide Footage Not Beneath Investigation By UK Counter-Terror Police”, with the caption “some information.”

An anti-Tory sentiment additionally emerged at Kneecap’s controversial units at Coachella this month, the primary of which noticed them main the group in a chant of “Maggie’s in a field”, referring to the late Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Coachella performances led to calls from Sharon Osbourne to revoke their working visas. The 2 units on the competition additionally reportedly left organisers “blindsided” as a result of their overtly political nature, together with exhibiting pro-Palestine projections on the display behind them and inspiring the viewers to chant “Free, Free Palestine”.

Kneecap have since referred to as the controversy “a coordinated smear marketing campaign” towards their efforts in “exposing the continuing genocide towards the Palestinian individuals”.

“For over a yr, we have now used our exhibits to name out the British and Irish governments’ complicity in struggle crimes. The latest assaults towards us, largely emanating from the US, are primarily based on deliberate distortions and falsehoods,” they stated, including that they’re “taking motion towards a number of of those malicious efforts”.

“The rationale Kneecap is being focused is straightforward — we’re telling the reality, and our viewers is rising,” the assertion learn. “These attacking us need to silence criticism of a mass slaughter. They weaponize false accusations of antisemitism to distract, confuse, and supply cowl for genocide,” citing “huge numbers of Jewish individuals” who’re “outraged by this genocide simply as we’re”. “What we care about is that governments of the nations we carry out in are enabling among the most horrific crimes of our lifetimes — and we won’t keep silent. No media spin will change this,” they wrote.

At time of writing, the band’s appearances at Glastonbury, TRNSMT and different European festivals stay intact. Elsewhere yesterday, their big Belfast present with Fontaines D.C. had offered out in simply over half an hour, regardless of calls from the DUP to have it axed.