A man in his 30s has been interviewed by police after Bob Vylan’s ‘death to the IDF’ chant at Glastonbury festival.
The punk rap duo sparked controversy in June after its frontman Pascal Robinson-Foster shouted ‘death to the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces]’ on stage in front of thousands of fans.
The set was live-streamed by the BBC as part of its coverage of the festival, leading to fierce criticism of the corporation.
A man in his mid-30s attended a voluntary interview with officers in relation to the comments made on stage during the performance, Avon and Somerset Police said on Monday.
The force added they had logged the chants as a public order incident after consulting with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
A spokesperson continued: ‘It has been important for us to have a full understanding of any legal precedents, which is a complex process, and therefore over the past couple of months we have been seeking early legal advice from the CPS.
‘Advice from the CPS was received during the week commencing Monday 20 October.
‘Following a review of the advice, a voluntary police interview was arranged to help us progress our enquiries, which was held yesterday afternoon (Monday 10 November).
‘The matter has been recorded as a public order incident while we continue to investigate and consider all relevant legislation.
‘Voluntary police interviews are commonly used in investigations where an individual agrees to attend and an arrest is not considered necessary, for example on the grounds of public safety or for the preservation of evidence. Attendees are interviewed under caution and have the same legal rights as anybody who is arrested.’
Hundreds of protesters are expected to descend on the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, tonight before a Bob Vylan gig.
The set will go ahead in spite of 4,000 letters of complaint sent to Sir Keir, whose London constituency is home to tonight’s venue.
Stickers reading ‘NO 2 Jew hate’ and ‘arrest Bob Vylan’ have popped outside the O2 Forum in opposition to tonight’s , scheduled performance.
A spokesman for Stop the Hate, the group running the campaign, said: ‘Since the Heaton Park incident, Keir Starmer has said the right things, but there has been no meaningful follow-through.
‘Whether due to a lack of will or an inability to act, he appears either unwilling or unable to seriously confront anti-Jewish racism, even when concerns are raised about an event taking place in his own constituency, close to his home.’
Bob Vylan’s representatives have been approached for comment.
It comes after the BBC was under pressure to ‘review one of its biggest stars’ after British Airways pulled its support for Louis Theroux’s podcast over platforming Bob Vylan’s lead singer – who told the broadcaster he was ‘not regretful’ over his ‘death to the IDF’ chant.
Robinson-Foster told Theroux he stood by the ‘Jew-hating’ comments and said that given the chance he would ‘do it again tomorrow’ during the interview, which first aired last month.
BA said in a statement: ‘Our sponsorship of the series has now been paused and the advert has been removed.
‘We’re grateful that this was brought to our attention, as the content clearly breaches our sponsorship policy in relation to politically sensitive or controversial subject matters.
‘We and our third-party media agency have processes in place to ensure these issues don’t occur and we’re investigating how this happened.’
Then BBC director general Tim Davie, who resigned on Sunday over a separate issue, was at Glastonbury while the set took place and has since admitted it was a ‘very significant mistake’ to broadcast the performance.
Danny Cohen, former head of BBC Television, said the broadcaster now needed to questions its ties with Theroux after he made comments that could be deemed ‘deeply antisemitic’.
In one part of the podcast, Robinson-Foster said: ‘Ultimately the fight is against white supremacy, right? Like that is what the fight is against, and I think white supremacy is displayed so vividly in Zionism’.
Theroux agreed with an ‘mmhm’, adding: I think I’d add to that, there’s an even more macro lens which you can put on it, which is that Jewish identity in the Jewish community, as expressed in Israel, has become almost like an acceptable quote, unquote way of understanding ethno nationalism.
‘And so it’s like they’re prototyping an aggressive, militarised form of ethno nationalism, which is then rolled out, whether it’s by people like Viktor Orban in Hungary or Trump in the US, it’s become sort of this certain sense of post Holocaust Jewish exceptionalism or Zionist exceptionalism, has become a role model on the national stage for what these white identitarians would like to do in their own countries. Does that make sense?’
The BBC admitted to breaking editorial guidelines when Bob Vylan’s ‘deeply-offensive’ Glastonbury chant was broadcast live to millions.
But in the Louis Theroux interview, Robinson-Foster claimed he was praised by members of the Corporation when he came off stage following his set in June.
He said BBC staff on the ground at the event told him that they ‘loved’ his set, and called it ‘fantastic’.
In his first major interview since the festival, Vylan said BBC staff acted like it was ‘normal’ when they finished performing and went so far as to heap praise on the band.
‘It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like [he gasps]. It’s just normal,’ he told the Louis Theroux podcast.
‘We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!’.’
Vylan, who had his US visa revoked and gigs cancelled in the wake of the scandal, said that, even hours after the performance, he was still being praised by BBC staff.
‘This was a couple hours later because it took us a little while to get back,’ he said.
‘Nobody at the BBC at that time was there like, ‘oh my gosh’. You know? But it was very normal. And then we got back and then, yeah, like I said, we went and got ice cream.’
The Corporation partially upheld complaints and admitted breaking editorial guidelines in relation to harm and offence.
BBC Chairman Samir Shah said that the decision not to pull the live feed of the performance was ‘unquestionably an error of judgement’.
In a letter to the select committee, Davie admitted there were 550 BBC staff on the ground at the festival and some were authorised to kill the live feed.
Despite the ensuing furore, Vylan has now said he would lead the same chant again and has no regrets over the decision.
‘Yes, I would do it again. I’m not regretful of it,’ he said.
‘We fully understand the strength of feeling regarding Bob Vylan’s live appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC,’ said the BBC in its original statement.
‘We deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to apologise to our viewers and listeners and in particular the Jewish community.
‘We are also unequivocal that there can be no place for antisemitism at, or on, the BBC.
‘It is clear that errors were made both in the lead-up to and during Bob Vylan’s appearance.’
Bob Vylan recently also had to postpone two UK gigs over ‘political pressure’ including a show in Manchester following calls by Jewish leaders and MPs for it to be cancelled.
Despite the criticism, the group has seen support from fans new and old with their album Humble As The Sun re-entering the charts over the summer, climbing to number one in the UK Hip Hop and R&B album charts, and subsequent announcement of their We Won’t Go Quietly 2025 UK tour.
