British counterterrorism police announced that they are investigating videos filmed during concerts by Northern Irish rappers Kneecap, who are suspected of inciting violence against conservative parliamentarians and supporting Hamas.
Officers from the unit who reviewed two videos filmed in 2023 and 2024 and released in recent days "have established that there are reasonable grounds to investigate possible offences," London police said.
In a video circulating online, one of the rappers appears to shout "Hamas, Hamas, Hezbollah" during a concert in London last year. In another, dated November 2023, a man on stage declares that "a good Tory (member of the British Conservative Party) is a dead Tory. Kill your MP."
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for a ban on the group, and elected MPs called for the rappers to be removed from the lineup of the legendary Glastonbury festival at the end of June, AFP reported.
The group had already been excluded from the Eden Sessions festival in Cornwall, and three concerts in Germany in September were canceled.
On April 28, the rappers said they "do not support and have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah."
"We condemn all attacks on civilians, always," they wrote on social media.
"We also reject the idea that we are trying to incite violence against a member of parliament or any individual. Never," they added, apologizing to the families of two MPs, one from the Labour Party and the other from the Conservative Party, who were killed in 2016 and 2021. The families said they felt hurt by their comments.
During their concert in mid-April at the Coachella festival in California, the Belfast rappers projected the messages
"Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people" and "F*ck Israel, free Palestine" on a giant screen, which provoked a storm of reactions.
Several big names in music, such as Pulp, Fontaines D.C., and Massive Attack, signed a letter in support of Kneecap, who they say is the target of "political repression" and "clear and coordinated attempts to censor and cancel them."
The rappers, who rose to international fame with the release of their album "Fine Art" in 2024 and the energetic documentary "Kneecap," are known for their punk energy. The trio raps in English and Irish and defends their language as an "anti-colonial" cry against British power. | BGNES