Kneecap and Massive Attack form musician alliance to support pro-Palestine artists

Stephen Price

Massive Attack has announced the formation of an alliance of musicians, including Kneecap, Garbage and Brian Eno, opposed to the Israeli genocide in Gaza and ‘systematic efforts’ to suppress criticism of Israel’s actions.

Sharing a statement on Instagram, the music pioneers wrote: “The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description.

“We write as artists who’ve chose to use our public platforms to speak out agains the genocide occurring there & the role of the UK Government in facilitating it,” they wrote.

“Because of our expressions of conscience, we’ve been subject to various intimidations from within our industry (live & recorded) & legally via organised bodies such as UK Lawyers For Israel; whose range of activities has now finally been exposed in a new documentary film projected last night by the Led By Donkeys collective.”

They add: “Having withstood these campaigns of attempted censorship, we won’t standby & allow other artists – particularly those at earlier stages of their careers or in other positions of professional vulnerability – to be threatened into silence or career cancellation.

“In this spirit, we encourage artists who’ve been placed in this position, or those who now wish to use their platforms to talk about Palestine, but are concerted about industrial or legal repercussions to contact us.”

“We are the majority”

Irish rappers, Kneecap, who have been outspoken about the ongoing attack on Gaza and the mass killing of civilians, added: “End threats and censorship against artists who speak out against the genocide in Palestine.

“Speak out. Stand up. We are the majority.”

 

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In a statement provided to the Guardian, Massive Attack said: “This collective action is really about offering some kind of solidarity to those artists who are living day after day in a screen-time genocide, but are worried about using their platforms to express their horror at that because of the level of censorship within their industry or from highly organised external legal bodies, terrifying them and their management teams with aggressive legal actions. The intention is clear and obvious: to silence them.”

Political campaign group Led By Donkeys has shared that “UK Lawyers for Israel Ltd has tried to silence various voices supporting Palestine. Their charitable wing has made public statements rejecting international law.”

The World Socialist Website has pointed out that the UKLFI “has targeted professional regulators… bombarding them with vexatious complaints aimed at harassing and silencing Palestinian rights advocates and using the same tactics as those set out by the Israeli government for combating the BDS movement. It refuses to accept international law that deems Israel’s occupation of West Bank illegal and refers to it as “Judea and Samaria.”

In a Led By Donkeys video, Jewish activist Em Hilton argues that “The weaponisation of antisemitism is not only an egregious attack on Palestine advocacy, civil liberties and human rights—it also hurts the fight against antisemitism.

“It makes it harder for us to identify true antisemitism when it happens and creates scepticism about whether anti-Jewish racism even still exists, or is just a political tool.”

Welsh solidarity

Back in May, Cymdeithas yr Iaith joined more than 100 musicians including Adwaith, Gruff Rhys and Gwenno who have issued a joint statement saying: “Kneecap is not the story, the story is the slaughter in Gaza”

As a major promoter and supporter of the Welsh language music scene in Wales, Cymdeithas yr Iaith has given its support to the joint statement made by more than 100 musicians who produce music in Welsh, expressing their support for the Irish band Kneecap.

Kneecap have been severely criticised recently for voicing their strong condemnation of Israel and their support for the Palestinian people.

The Welsh music creatives involved in the statement have united to express their strong support for the Palestinian people in the face of the crisis engulfing them and the overwhelming oppression they are enduring, and their statement demands justice and peace for the Palestinians.

“Never be silenced”

Among the musicians who have signed the statement are Welsh artists, Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog, Gruff Rhys, Gwenno, Pys Melyn, Talulah, Mali Hâf, Bryn Fôn, Mellt and Mark Roberts (MR).

One of the statement’s promoters, the singer Steve Eaves said: “It is of great concern to us that so much attention has been focussed on the band Kneecap, and much less focus on the relentless Israeli aggression against Gaza, where the population is prevented from accessing food, water, shelter, electricity and medical treatment.

“A number of well-known English bands have already stated their support for Kneecap and it is important that we convey a similar message from Wales.

“Within the Welsh language music scene there has always been a strong tradition of musicians demanding peace and justice, and voicing opposition to racism and apartheid.

“We feel we should always be ready to demand that governments bring an end to war, and that this demand, and all similar opposition to oppression, should never be silenced.”

Steve added: “Kneecap’s activism is not the story we should focus on, the real story is the slaughter in Gaza and the West Bank.

Gaza

The Gaza Strip is at critical risk of famine if Israel does not lift its blockade and stop its military campaign, food security experts have said.

Outright famine is the mostly likely scenario unless conditions change, according to findings by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises.

Palestinians are in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they face possible starvation, the report said, while another million are at “emergency” levels of hunger.

Israel has banned any food, shelter, medicine or other goods from entering the Palestinian territory for the past 10 weeks, even as it carries out waves of air strikes and ground operations.

Gaza’s population of around 2.3 million people relies almost entirely on outside aid to survive, because Israel’s military campaign has wiped out most of the capacity to produce food inside the territory.

Nearly the entire population of Gaza now faces high levels of hunger, it said, driven by conflict, the collapse of infrastructure, destruction of agriculture, and blockades of aid.

Commenting on the report, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said any delay in restoring the flow of aid “bringing us closer to famine”.

“If we fail to act, we are failing to uphold the right to food, which is a basic human right,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said.