The Irish rap group Knecap has never moved away from politics, and their recent sets in Coachella triggered the controversy after including messages defending Palestine during their performances on both weekends. In an email at Rolling Stone, The member of the Mo Chara group explained that the ball joint had spoke of Palestine “at each concert since the group’s training, long before October 2023 while the brutal oppression and occupation of Palestine have been continuing for 77 years”, and responded to some of the criticisms that are followed.
“We believe that we have the obligation to use our platform when we can raise the question of Palestine, and it was important for us to express themselves in Coachella because the United States is the main funder and supplier of arms to Israel when they commit a genocide in Gaza,” he said. “As I said since the stage,” the US government could stop the genocide tomorrow. It is important that young Americans understand and know it. »»
During its first performance Coachella, the group had planned to have several projections with pro-Palestine text on them. However, they did not do it on stage, and the whole was interrupted on the Livestream YouTube of Coachella. “We have heard of it that the next day and we have not heard of anyone officially,” explains Mo Chara Roller. “It is not surprising, large companies do not like to hear the truth unless it is suitable for their story and their pocket.”
The second weekend, the projections said: “Israel commits a genocide against the Palestinian people”, followed by “it is the American government that stops and finances Israel despite their war crimes.” A last screen said: “Fuck Israel. Palestine Libre.” At the end, the crowd embarked on a song of “free Palestine”. “This is something that happens to all our concerts from Spain to Scotland and Ireland in Iceland because people know that what’s going on is bad and angry,” writes Mo Chara. “The crowd singing the” free Palestine “in Coachella was a message of solidarity for the residents of Gaza of ordinary Americans who want to see the end of the genocide, despite the armament and the financing of their Israel government.”
Performance has triggered a major reaction, organizations and public figures speaking and describing the whole as anti-Israeli. (“Israel has murdered more than 52,000 Palestinians in Gaza in the past 18 months, mainly women and children,” wrote Mo Chara. “They have erased a large part of the Gaza band with weapons supplemented by the United States and are currently hungry more than 2 million gas.
On X, Sharon Osbourne urged people to plead for the revocation of the group’s members’ visas, saying that their projections displayed “anti-Israeli messages and hate speeches” and that they “openly support terrorist organizations”. Asked about Osbourne’s tweets, Mo Chara replied: “His diatribe has so many holes in it that it barely justifies an answer, but she should listen to” War Pigs “which was written by Black Sabbath (her husband).”
The organizers of the Nova Music Festival, the site of the murderous attack of Hamas who preceded the repression of Israel against Gaza, also invited the group to the Nova exhibition to “discover the stories of those who were murdered in the first hand, those who survived and those who are still held hostage”.
Mo Chara did not answer questions as to if they would accept this offer, but simply said: “There are more than 10,000 Palestinians who are held hostage in Israeli prisons while we are talking, many of them without indictment or a trial, of which 400 children who are illegally detained in international law. As I have already said, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been murdered in the last 18 months, and more than 2 million people have been murdered in Gaza. In Gaza in the past 18 months?… Our message is to end the genocide and end the illegal occupation of Palestine in progress. »»
He adds: “We want people to take all the measures they can stop the genocide. People can take what they want from our music, the genocide stop is more important.”
