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LAST UPDATE | 30 Apr
MUSICIANS SUCH AS Christy Moore, Fontaines D.C., Paul Weller and Pulp have signed a letter calling for “artistic freedom of expression” after a “concerted attempt to censor and deplatform Kneecap”.
Three Kneecap concerts that were due to take place in Germany have been cancelled amid controversy over the group’s recent commentary about Israel’s war on Gaza.
The Belfast rap trio were due to perform in Koln, Berlin and Hamburg at the start of September. However, the three gigs have now been cancelled.
It follows two festivals in Germany last week also cancelling scheduled appearances by the group.
A concert at Eden Project, a series of concerts that take place at the Cornwall botanical gardens in the UK each year, was also cancelled, with no reason given for this.
During Kneecap’s set at the US music festival Coachella earlier this month, a screen displayed messages that included “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine.”
The group’s manager Daniel Lambert has said that there has been a “concerted campaign” against the rap trio “emanating from the US” since the Coachella gig.
The open letter also pointed to a “campaign to remove Kneecap from the public eye” by Westminster and the British media.
👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/HuJ4twS3NM
— Daniel Lambert (@dlLambo) April 30, 2025
The letter added that the artists who signed it “need to register our opposition to any political repression of artistic freedom”.
“No political figures or parties should have the right to dictate who does and does not play at music festivals of gigs,” reads the letter, which has also been signed by Annie Mac, Damien Dempsey, Lankum, Massive Attack, and Primal Scream.
“The question of agreeing with Kneecap’s politics views is irrelevant,” said the letter, which called for the “interference campaign” to be “condemned and ridiculed”.
Last week, Lambert said the group’s members have received death threats over their Coachella performance.
Speaking last night to RTÉ’s Prime Time, Lambert said that the “last few days have been very challenging”.
“To the massive credit of the three lads, at no point have they had any concern for their own income, for their own careers, for their own futures.
“At every point, they have the absolute conviction that they are doing the right thing and they stand on the right side of history.”
"You have a band being held to a higher moral account than politicians who are ignoring international law."
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) April 29, 2025
Miriam O'Callaghan joined in studio by Kneecap's manager Daniel Lambert on #RTEPT pic.twitter.com/vnijIPiOLM
In a statement yesterday morning, Kneecap walked back comments perceived to be supporting terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah and apologised to the families of two former British MPs, David Amess and Jo Cox, who were murdered in recent years.
It came after a video circulated from a November 2023 gig appearing to show one member of the group saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The daughter of Amess accused Kneecap of “gaslighting” in their apology and said it would be “very dangerous” for the group to perform at Glastonbury.
Lambert said the idea that there was an “incitement of violence against an MP is ludicrous”.
He said those comments were “taken entirely out of context”.
“They’re performers and it was part of a performance,” said Lambert.
“This was a concerted campaign, and the aim of this campaign is really important. This has nothing to do with Kneecap or something that Kneecap may or may not have said.
“It’s solely about de-platforming artists and telling the next young band, both through the music industry and through the political class, that you cannot speak about Palestine.”
"This has nothing to do with Kneecap... It's about telling the next young band that you cannot speak about Palestine."
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) April 29, 2025
Miriam O'Callaghan speaking with Kneecap's manager Daniel Lambert on #RTEPT pic.twitter.com/cNmfavzbiv
Meanwhile, Lambert remarked that the video didn’t simply “emerge”.
“There was a concerted campaign emanating from the US to analyse every single thing that Kneecap has ever said in seven years of performances.
“Why this happened is around what they said at Coachella, and what they said at Coachella was the right thing to say.
“It’s something we’ve said at Leeds, Reading, Glastonbury, Dublin and Belfast.
“What really scared the State of Israel and led to this campaign is the reaction of young people in America, young people who aren’t willing to support a genocide, and have empathy and sympathy towards the Palestinian people.”
Israel has been accused of genocide in a case brought to the International Court of Justice by South Africa.
The ICJ issued provisional measures against Israel after finding there are reasonable grounds to believe Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, where over 52,000 people have been killed since October 2023.
Lambert also claimed that this is now entering the “space of moral hysteria and outrage”.
“You have a band being held to a higher moral account than politicians who are ignoring international law.
“(British prime minister) Keir Starmer was an international lawyer and he said that Israel had a right to cut water and food into Gaza.”
This was a reference to an interview Starmer did with LBC in October 2023 in which Starmer suggested that Israel had the “right” to cut off power and water from Gaza.
“Children are starving to death, and we’re spending six or seven days speaking about Kneecap – we spent less than a day speaking about 15 executed medics.”
In March, an Israeli army attack on an emergency convoy killed 15 aid workers and medical personnel in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police are assessing the footage, along with a video clip from another concert in November 2024 in which a member of the band appeared to shout “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.
When Lambert was asked about this incident, Lambert replied: “To focus in and say to somebody, ‘do you condemn or do you support?’, is away from the core message, and the core message should be, do you understand.
“Do you understand why somebody, after 77 years of a brutal, violent occupation, would resort to violence.”
He described the recent controversy as a “total distraction” and added: “We’re speaking about something that was said at a performance and taken out of context.”
Additional reporting by Lauren Boland
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