Rap Kneecap rap trio from Rap North Irish, which published Antiisraeli messages during his recent concert at the California Coachella Festival, defended his words on Thursday, April 24, despite a controversy.
On April 18, in front of a crowd applaud, the rappers, known for their support for the Palestinian cause, had projected the following messages on a giant screen: “Israel commits a genocide against the Palestinian people”, “Fuck Israel, releases Palestine.” The group also led the public in songs “Free, Free Palestine” (launch, Palestine launch).
“Our statements are not aggressive,” the rappers wrote in a statement sent to the AFP on Thursday. “Saying 20,000 children is, however,” they added.
“Or execute 15 doctors and bury them, with their ambulances,” they said. They refer to the death of the members of the Civil Defense teams and the Red Crescent near Rafah at the end of March, killed by the Israeli army fire.
On Sunday, the Israeli army published the conclusions of an internal military investigation that raises “several professional failures” among the soldiers involved in the shooting and requested the dismissal of an officer. However, she refused to have attacked and executed rescuers.
A year and a half of war
The War in Gaza was launched by the unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023 perpetrated by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement classified by the European Union in southern Israel. 1,218 people died there on the Israeli side, according to an AFP count.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, 51,355 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the offensive made in reprisals by the Israeli army.
Controversial statements
Since the massacre of October 7, the KNEECAP group has multiplied the controversial positions on social networks. Following the murder, the Irish rappers sent their “solidarity to the Palestinian struggle” in X (ex-twitter), a message perceived as a support mark for Hamas terrorists. “Resistance is not terrorism,” he published on the same network a few days later. Last February, one of the members conveyed a photo of him in which he studied a book for the glory of Hezbollah, ally of Hamas.
Kneecap’s messages in Coachella have reacted on social networks. The British Sharon Osbourne, television personality and wife of singer Ozzy Osbourne, estimated that the group’s words were similar to “hatred incitement.”
She asks the US authorities to revorate the group’s work visa. The last “transforms Coachella into a Hamas fans club,” he accused. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the agency’s independent artists, which represented Kneecap so far, has separated from the group during the Californian festival.
Source: BFM TV
