An unprecedented and controversial decision. “Kneecap is officially prohibited from entering Hungary for anti -Semitism and apologies for terrorism,” said Hungarian executive spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, transmitted by AFP. The measure is applied to each of the three members of the Northern Ireland Hip-Hop group for a period of three years.
“Give them a platform normalizes hatred and terror, and endangers democratic values,” he said, evoking “the duty to protect” the important Jewish community in the country of central Europe.
Kneecap, a Belfast Punk Gaelic group that remembers in English and Irish, affirms its commitment to the strong and clear Palestinian cause. His antiisraeli comments at the end of June on the stage of the famous Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom had increased the controversy.
“Political fun”
If the trio denies any support for Hezbollah, his member Liam O’Hanna, known as Mo Chara, is prosecuted for “terrorist offense” after having worn a flag of the Lebanese Islamist movement during a concert in London in 2024. He must appear on August 20 in the British capital.
Behind this “” scandalous action “without a legal basis” of the “authoritarian government of Viktor Orban”, “It is clear that it is a political deviation and a new attempt to silence those who denounce the genocide against the Palestinian people”, reacted to the knee on social networks.
“Unprecedented”
Many voices had grown up in Hungary when they approach their concert scheduled for August 11, 2025 at the Sziget Festival in Budapest, which brings together hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.
“Haine’s speeches do not have their place among us. We find it unacceptable,” said a petition signed by almost 300 artists, remembering that a dozen festivals have refused to welcome Kneecap, especially in Germany or Scotland.
The Northern Ireland group, on the other hand, produced in early July in France in France, in the Eurockéennes de Belfort, and was expected in Rock in Seine on August 24, which however won the festival to lose the subsidy of the city of Saint-Cloud of 40,000 euros.
If Israel welcomed, through the voice of its ambassador, Maya Kadosh, “the clarity of the Hungarian position”, the Sziget festival regretted this “unprecedented decision”, probably “damaging the image of Hungary abroad.” “We condemn hate speeches”, but “we believe that culture cancels (” deletion or cancellation culture “) and cultural boycots are not the solution,” the organizers added.
For several months, the nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has prohibited any pro-palestine meeting and has shown unconditional support for his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, invited in April to Budapest despite the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (CPI) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza dam.
Source: BFM TV
