Israel has condemned the BBC and Glastonbury after a pro-Palestine punk act called for the death of Israeli soldiers during a live broadcast from the festival.
Police have launched a probe into the comments made by Bob Vylan, who led chants of ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Death to the IDF’, on Saturday afternoon.
The singer from the band, who keeps his identity secret, also declared ‘from the river to the sea Palestine… will be free’ – regarded by many in the Jewish community as a call for Israel’s elimination.
However, singer and guitarist Bobby Vylan, who performs alongside his bandmate Bobbie Vylan, revelled in the fury caused by his comments on Saturday evening.
Sharing a photo of himself eating an ice cream, he wrote on his Instagram story: ‘While Zionists are crying on socials, I’ve just had a late night (vegan) ice cream.
Bob Vylan’s entire performance was live-streamed on the BBC iPlayer but it has since been taken down.
Nevertheless, the corporation was lambasted for failing to cut the broadcast immediately after the anti-Semitic chanting.
Shockingly, its live stream continued for another 40 minutes until the end of Bob Vylan’s performance.
The incident prompted calls for the band members to be arrested over claims they had incited violence. Avon and Somerset Police last night said they were examining video evidence and investigating if any offence had been committed.
The broadcast plunged the BBC into a major crisis with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy demanding ‘an urgent explanation’ from BBC director-general Tim Davie into ‘what due diligence it carried out ahead of the Bob Vylan performance’.
A government spokesman said: ‘We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury.’
Lord Ian Austin – the Government’s trade envoy to Israel – said: ‘The police should investigate as a matter of urgency and, if necessary, arrest the band members.’
Tory MP Greg Stafford said: ‘If someone can be jailed for inciting racial hatred on social media, then surely this band should be investigated for inciting violence at the very least. Somerset Police should arrest them and carry out an investigation immediately.’
Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, also slammed the performance.
She told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I condemn the BBC for continuing to live-stream anti-Israel hate speech from Glastonbury.
‘What do you think the BBC would have done had a performer been shouting anti-Muslim or far-Right hate speech? They would have pulled the feed.
‘But because the target is Israel – let’s be honest, because it’s Jews – it’s tolerated, even broadcast. This is clearly incitement.’
The BBC later pulled the offending incident from its footage on iPlayer.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the comments ‘grotesque’, adding: ‘Glorifying violence against Jews isn’t edgy. The cultural establishment needs to wake up to the fact this isn’t protest, it’s incitement.’
Danny Cohen, former director of BBC Television, said: ‘That something like this might happen could easily have been foreseen by the BBC and measures could have been taken to prevent its broadcast.
‘This is a very serious failure, and further evidence that BBC management are blind to their responsibility to Britain’s Jewish community.’
Bob Vylan, who formed eight years ago in London, refuse to reveal their real names because of what they call the ‘surveillance state’.
Instead the singer calls himself Bobby Vylan and the drummer Bobbie Vylan.
Addressing the crowd of around 30,000, Bobby said he had to be ‘careful’ because their performance was ‘live on the BBC’. He then, however, led the ‘free, free Palestine’ chant, then changing it to ‘death, death to the IDF’.
‘Hell, yeah, from the river to the sea Palestine must, will be, Inshallah, it will be free,’ he added.
The singer also backed controversial Northern Irish band Kneecap, who were following them on the West Holts stage, by describing music executives who called for the group to be banned as ‘Zionists’.
In another hugely embarrassing blow for the BBC, he also used the highly offensive c-word.
May Golan, Israel’s minister for social equality, said: ‘Perhaps someone should tell that anti-Semitic band what happened to the hundreds of innocent people at Israel’s Nova music festival who were murdered, raped, butchered, and kidnapped by savage monsters.’
The BBC decided not to stream Kneecap live. Instead an edited version of the performance was due to be put on the iPlayer.
It came ten days after Kneecap member Liam O’hAnnaidh, 27, appeared in court charged with a terror offence, prompting the Prime Minister to say it was ‘not appropriate’ for the band to be playing Glastonbury.
Bandmate Naoise Ó Caireallain called on the crowd to ‘riot’ outside Westminster magistrates in August when the case returns to court.
Kneecap started their performance this afternoon by chanting ‘F*** Keir Starmer’.
They also spoke out in support of Palestine Action, which the government wants to proscribe as a terror group.
Glastonbury had said all were welcome at the festival but added it ‘does not condone hate speech or incitement to violence of any kind from its performers.’
Bob Vylan is the UK’s self-proclaimed ‘most violent boy band’ whose singer attended his first pro-Palestine protest at the age of 15.
At Glastonbury today, Bobby Vylan said: ‘We’re seeing the UK and the US be complicit in war crimes and genocide happening over there to the Palestinian people… Anybody with any moral compass can surely see that what is happening over there in Gaza is a tragedy.
Former Match Of The Day host Gary Lineker, 64, also issued a call to ‘Free Palestine’ during an appearance at a discussion event at Glastonbury yesterday.
And he criticised bosses at the BBC for not being impartial.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘Some of the comments made during Bob Vylan’s set were deeply offensive.
‘During this live stream on iPlayer, which reflected what was happening on stage, a warning was issued on screen about the very strong and discriminatory language.
‘We have no plans to make the performance available on demand.’
