Kneecap Shares Short Response After Learning UK Police's Counter Terror Team Was Reviewing 'Up Hamas' Concert Chant

Kneecap, the Irish hip hop trio currently under investigation by the U.K. police's counter-terrorism unit for shouting "up Hamas, up Hezbollah" during their Coachella performances earlier this month, issued a brief response to the controversy.

The group has faced both praise and criticism for their advocacy of Palestine during their Coachella performances. In their most recent set, Mo Chara drew a comparison between the group's Irish roots by highlighting their ancestors' struggle for independence from British rule and the ongoing suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

"The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the... skies with nowhere to go," Chara said, as seen in an X clip. "The Palestinians have nowhere to go. This is their f--king home, and they're being bombed from the sky."

Kneecap had a two-word response to the investigation.

"Some facts 👇," they wrote in an X post, accompanied by an image of the group's members with the headline: "18-Months of Genocide Footage Not Under Investigation By UK Counter-Terror Police."

The group's message alluded to the British government's refusal to investigate the ongoing war on Gaza. In fact, the Western power has been "actively complicit in genocidal acts perpetrated against the Palestinian people," according to report from the British Palestinian Committee released in January.

The report found that the U.K. "played an influential role, not only through the validation of arms licenses, but also through wider and deeper military collaboration with Israel." Furthermore, Israeli forces were granted access to British military bases, including the Royal Air Force, and has supplied "weapons, personnel, and intelligence" to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023.

Earlier this month, U.K. Prime Minster Keir Starmer broke with Israel and the U.S. by calling for an investigation into Israeli Defense Forces' attempt to cover up the execution-style killing and burying of 15 emergency workers in Gaza.

"There's got to be an investigation," Starmer told U.K. lawmakers on April 9, two weeks after the devastating incident, per NBC News. "And we have to be absolutely clear that we're not just talking about that isolated incident."

Tags

Music, Band, Palestine, Israel