KNEECAP - OPEN LETTER TO THE WORLDWIDE MUSIC INDUSTRY
i received this via email yesterday and think it does a great job of highlighting the inconsistencies and hypocrisy surrounding the Kneecap debate. What do you think:
I am a concerned member of the music industry, writing to all who might listen. Please feel free to publish, share, or spread this important message in any way you see fit - your newspaper, magazine, website, newsletter, substack - anywhere you think the people who need to read this might see it.
After months of shouting “F*** Israel, Free Palestine!” at their own concerts, publicly celebrating proscribed terrorist groups and openly calling for the deaths of MPs, Kneecap are being unfairly forced into facing the possibility that actions have consequences.
The suggestion that inciting political violence or lionising extremists could open the door to criticism, and that breaking the law might lead to criminal charges, is outrageous. As the band have declared, this is nothing more than "Establishment figures, desperate to silence us” and we can not let the oppressive state apparatus succeed.
That the establishment in question seems to have resorted to little more than quoting the band’s own words back at them is infuriating. Who among us wouldn’t be frustrated to learn that our public actions - filmed, streamed, and posted on our social media timelines - might be interpreted literally?
To hold artists accountable for what they actually say and do feels uncomfortably close to a functioning society. That an artist should face this level of accountability is truly outrageous and we in the music industry must come together in solidarity to provide cover for them.
Kneecap concerts have always been safe spaces where words are said. Words of “love, inclusion, and hope.” – powerful, hopeful, loving and unifying statements like “Kill your local MP,” “The only good Tory is a dead Tory.” and “F*** Israel”.
But these are words, and words are just meant to be said, not taken literally. Now shadowy figures are calling for consequences beyond applause and merch sales.
We can not let this happen.
Kneecap provide an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to educate themselves on the complexities of Middle Eastern Politics. Where else will the youth of today learn that one must "F*** Israel" in order to "Free Palestine”?
Without Kneecap, how will people come together in joyous sing song about a dead woman in a box? Or chant the name of Islamist terror groups without regard to stuff like the law?
These are the kind of sacred spaces the establishment are trying to take away from us and we must protect them at all costs.
That there should be any suggestion of self reflection or consequence is a damning indictment of how well society functions and it is our responsibility to protect these precious voices of the oppressed, whatever it takes.
Here are some things we can do to help:
DISTRACT! If we can keep our faces straight enough to make out this is about curtailing artistic freedom or free speech, we can deflect from what’s actually at issue, garner support and maybe even get away with it. No one wants to be accused of curtailing artistic freedom or stifling free speech.
We must publish Kneecap's statements in full without any pushback or criticism. For example where they say:
“we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah.”
do not then embed this video into your story, where the band are clearly (allegedly) seen shouting "UP HAMAS, UP HEZBOLLAH” while wearing the Hezbollah flag.
Exposing Orwellian levels of denial such as this could make them look like they lack integrity, like the time they excused themselves from boycotting The Great Escape despite 150 other bands doing so because
It’s important not to make too big a deal about any of the atrocities committed by Hamas or Hezbollah, as it complicates the narrative somewhat. We particularly want to avoid any reference to Hamas carrying out a massacre at a music festival where their murderous spree killed 360 people.
Bringing that up might provoke some unease among music fans, particularly those who attend festivals in the hope of ending their weekends alive or unkidnapped.
Those who are learning about the conflict via the band might find that kind of stuff somewhat horrific, which makes it challenging for the guys to frame Hamas as legitimate resistance (which they of course would never do *wink wink*).
The guys are all about "love, inclusion, and hope” but there's only so much of that to go around. It's enough that they sort of apologised to the families of two murdered MPs, there's no need to also apologise to the families of anyone mercilessly slaughtered by Hamas on October 7th 2023.
We can't have them wasting any sympathy on any innocent victims from the “other” side.
On the subject of Hamas, we should avoid anything that highlights the protests that are currently taking place in Gaza. The fact that Palestinians are risking their lives to speak out against them and are being tortured and killed for doing so doesn’t fit very well alongside the guys’ festival-friendly radicalism.
Highlighting the bravery of people who are struggling to survive while avoiding Israeli bombs only to put their lives in further jeopardy by speaking up against the oppressive regime who are supposed to be protecting them might make our lads look like over privileged, cynical cowards who don’t have a clue what’s going on over there and are using selective outrage to exploit a humanitarian tragedy for clout and publicity.
I am not sure music fans like that kind of thing so let’s try to keep a lid on that. This might mean that brave Gazans like Oday Al Rabay die for nothing, but it's a price worth paying if it means getting Kneecap to Glastonbury.
Fortunately, there’s little public awareness of Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon’s collapse or their actions in Syria, where the group helped prop up Bashar al-Assad and contributed to a war that killed over 600,000 people.
Even fewer people are aware that they murdered Irish Peacekeeper Private Séan Rooney in December of 2022.
The Hezbollah aesthetic is strong - the green-on-yellow machine gun in a raised fist logo has real merch potential and is perfect for a summer merch drop around the festivals.
But to be safe, best not to share this photo of the teacher in the band holding a book entitled
“Voice Of Hezbollah: The Statements Of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah”.
While it’s good to emphasise how well educated they are by showing that one of them can read books with no pictures, the fact that this is still proudly displayed on their social media throws a question mark around that “never supported Hezbollah” claim and might suggest that they still do.
We especially want to avoid any possibility of people reading the book. Some of the quotes could be misinterpreted, such as:
Page 193 where Jews are referred to as “the descendants of the apes and pigs” or
Page 171 which states "If we search the entire globe for a more cowardly, lowly, weak, and frail individual in his spirit, mind, ideology, and religion, we will never find anyone like the Jew”.
Quotes like these might be hard to spin as messages of peace and unity, no matter how many times we shout “context!”
Another delicate subject that’s thankfully flown under the radar is Hamas and Hezbollah’s position on homosexuality.
Both groups (that the band have allegedly never supported, except online and at concerts, allegedly) have a track record of violently repressing LGBTQ+ people, often enforcing capital punishment for the “crime” of being gay. So far, this aspect hasn’t interfered with Kneecap’s carefully cultivated image.
It’s important we don’t disturb that balance by drawing attention to the contradiction - progressive values at home, support for those who would execute gay people abroad. Let that sleeping contradiction lie.
If people start to connect the dots - between what’s been said, what’s been done, and what continues to be publicly posted - it could really interfere with the narrative we’ve worked so hard to craft.
It’s imperative that we ignore or downplay anything that might suggest bigotry, incitement, or astonishing hypocrisy.
As long as Kneecap keep saying the right type of radical things, we can keep pretending this is just about righteous resistance.
This is the moment to hold the line.
No matter what they say, or what they do, or whether they later deny saying or doing it - we stand with Kneecap.
Whether they acknowledge or deny their statements, whether the footage exists or not, whether the message aligns with their branding or fundamentally shatters it - we stand with Kneecap.
Because we’ve committed to the narrative, and it would be inconvenient to unravel it now.
And as long as Glastonbury doesn’t blink, we might just pull it off.
As the band themselves said:
"The real crimes are not in our performances; the real crimes are the silence and complicity of those in power."
