Over 100 Welsh musicians issue joint statement over Kneecap and Gaza
Stephen Price
Cymdeithas yr Iaith has 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.
Welsh musician support
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.
Nearly a half million 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 19-month-old 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.
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All of my favourite Welsh musicians are on this list.
Bless the Manic Street Preachers, a band who have made a career out being a political band without ever actually having a political stance about anything ,
The Manics understand nuance and they don’t tend to jump on any virtue signalling bandwagon. It’s a pity more can’t say the same.
Couldn’t be put any better…
No? Okay, I’ll try. 2 million people being starved to death… 100 children being killed every single day for more than a year… Over 1 million children, if they survive, being traumatised for the rest of their lives… Countless thousands maimed. Thousands more orphaned. Children being targeted and murdered in streets. Parents having to amputate the limbs of their kids without anaesthetic because hospitals no longer exist… The entirety of Gaza obliterated. 250 journalists murdered. Doctors, teachers, engineers, surgeons, footballers, poets… targeted and taken out…. e t c Only those either lacking in humanity or education would call stating their… Read more »
If you’re going to cancel Kneecap, you might as well cancel Bob Dylan for hoping that arms manufacturers will die.
And Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan wrote “Neighborhood Bully” years ago in support of Israel. Listen to it.
This:
All these countries want to eradicate the one little country in yellow which is Isreal. Glad to see you agree Isreal is a country in its own right. As most of these other countries don’t agree with Isreals existence.
Terrorist supporting is so woke. Disgustingly so.
What’s your view on the genocide stew? Would it have been OK to eradicate the population of northern Ireland to deal with the IRA? Bloody Sunday was the biggest recruitment drive for the IRA I wonder what a genocide policy by Israel will do for Hamas recruitment
Wow. The media are so revoltingly pro-Israel and are so paid off by them they’re not even reporting this genocide. They’re making it out like it’s a war situation. Carried out in retaliation to a incident they’re labelling as terrorism (supposedly over 1000 innocent children and families were slaughtered by terrorists and over 200 hostages taken and many kept even till now), but which the virtuous and morally superior among us know to be gallant freedom fighting. They won’t even show us this deliberate act to wipe out a whole people just like the Nazis intended to do. In fact,… Read more »
I have submitted three comments on this. Two disappeared without trace. The third, I was told at 0812 this morning, had been approved. And yet it is not visible here. So I shall repeat my central point, in the hope that it does finally appear. This is that the article, which is strangely anonymous, does not make it clear that Kneecap are under investigation for inciting the murder of British MPs. This is a relevant factor to take into account in deciding whether to support Kneecap or not. This is surely not such an offensive view that it needs to… Read more »
This has been my concern with the statement. It skirts around the real reason Kneecap are in the news. The band at this point are a distraction – an easy target for detractors allowing attention to be drawn away from the plight of Palestinians.
Ditto…
Hey Dic, “the only good Tory is a dead Tory” has been a widely used phrase for decades. Why do you think Kneecap are getting targeted right now?
Several replies on this story have been voted down or flagged by readers. The editorial team have not been deleting your comments.
Presumably the editorial team are the only ones capable of deleting replies?
As previously mentioned my initial comment, the only one that I intended to leave, has indeed been deleted and echoes a similar sentiment to others who have also had their own comments deleted.
The comments section uses semi-automated moderation software. Readers can vote down or flag comments. If a comment gets flagged three times it is automatically trashed as are comments that are voted down with a score of -10.
Does a flag lead to automatic deletion? Or is it a prompt for the editorial team to review and act accordingly (and impartially)? Can I just flag any comment I disagree with to unilaterally remove it without trace? Surely not!
Three flags leads to deletion but it is a very rare occurrence.This thread has had more posts flagged and downvoted than we usually see in a week or two.
I refuse to believe that my initial comment got down voted of flagged as it didn’t even get past moderator approval despite being perfectly respectful. Why should anyone take the time to engage with your content if you’re only interested in preaching to the choir?
You can refuse to accept what you want. I’ve supplied you with the facts. Have a lovely evening.
This article and a lot of the comments here are wrong because they are talking about the issues as if they are linked. What is happening in Gaza is wrong, but that doesn’t make Kneecap the good guys. There is nothing good about supporting an organisation based on violence and murder, or advocating murder of MPs. Their apology appears only to try and save their careers.
Also, what Israel is doing is wrong, but so is what the Palestinian terrorists are doing.
While artists may have sympathy for children in Gaza, I do not think screaming down a mic on stage in support for Hamas, a proscribed terror organisation in the UK, is a way to show solidarity with suffering as a result of the conflict. Very naive and foolish.