As the British government and the BBC condemn Glastonbury Festival duo Bob Vylan for a controversial set on Saturday, many on social media this week are accusing the institutions of reacting more strongly to their performance than to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
In a week already marked by controversy over Irish rap group Kneecap’s Glastonbury set – amid government accusations that the trio incited terrorism at a prior concert in the UK – backlash ensued after British grime-punk duo led a chant of “death, death to the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces]” to their audience of thousands, and to the additional millions who watched BBC’s airing of the performance.
Bob Vylan – comprising vocalist and guitarist Bobby Vylan and drummer Bobbie Vylan – are known for fusing punk, grime and hip-hop with socially conscious themes. Their lyrics frequently address racism, mental health, and gentrification in Britain’s Black communities.
The band member that led the chant, Bobby Vylan (Pascal Robinson-Foster), also spoke of once working under a “fucking Zionist” and called out the UK and the US or “being complicit in war crimes and genocide happening … to the Palestinian people”.
“I know we’re on the BBC, so we’re not going to say anything crazy,” he said before he continued to chant “free, free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
“We’re not pacifist punks. We are the violent punks, because sometimes you got to get your message across with violence because that is the only language that some people speak, unfortunately.”
“Because sometimes you’ve got to get your message across with violence because that is the only language that some people speak, unfortunately.”
Punk duo Bob Vylan used their Glastonbury set to deliver a powerful message against the genocide in Gaza, declaring that they’re not… pic.twitter.com/9zg3RW34sM
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 29, 2025
Bob Vylan’s scandal comes as reports emerge of Israeli soldiers deliberately targeting Palestinians during aid distributions run by the US-funded and Israeli-administered Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), as well as claims that flour provided has been laced with opioids by Israel.
The backlash to Bob Vylan’s chant was swift. British police on Monday launched a criminal investigation into the performances of both Bob Vylan and Kneecap. Bob Vylan’s chant was misreported in the Daily Mail as “death to Israelis”.
Government officials, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and the Glastonbury Festival condemned the remarks, as did the BBC.
The US is also punishing Bob Vylan, as it revoked the duo’s US visas over their “hateful tirade at Glastonbury,” a Trump official said on Monday.
On Monday, United Talent Agency (UTA) dropped Bob Vylan as a client.
‘Law protects the criminals’
While Bob Vylan faces consequences from media and government entities, thousands online have come to the defence of the rap duo, arguing that potentially offensive words are being treated as more dangerous than what many respected organisations, including United Nations experts, have categorised as a genocide in Gaza.
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I cannot believe we live in a world where Israelis are openly admitting to gunning down Palestinians waiting for aid because Israelis are starving them and our government thinks the problem is musicians.
— Monisha Rajesh 🍉 (@monisha_rajesh) June 29, 2025
“Just wild to me that the chant ‘death to the IDF’ is eliciting more backlash than the actual death of children in Gaza,” academic Heba Gowayed wrote on X.
One social media user compared the treatment of British-Israeli citizens to that of musicians speaking out against Israel.
“In the UK, wishing ‘death on the IDF’ will get you investigated by police, but IDF soldiers can return to the UK after killing kids in Gaza and get on with their lives as if nothing happened. The law protects the criminals,” the post reads on X.
Others are calling out the various times that Israelis have used the chant “death to Arabs” or “flatten Gaza” without the backlash that the musicians are receiving.
A singer in the UK sings “Death, death to the IDF”
And people shout terrorist.
A singer in Israel signs bombs that actually kill children sheltering in tents…and nobody blinks an eyelid.
Madness.
Our governments are useless and evil and complicit in a genocide. pic.twitter.com/CyTTzlh3pb
— sandra (@mrsDugskullery) June 28, 2025
“Groups of Israelis chant ‘Death to Arabs’, inciting racial murder, including at football matches in Europe—not a peep,” one social media user wrote on X. “@BobbyVylan’s Glasto crowd chant ‘Death to the IDF’—mayhem. The IDF isn’t a racial group. It’s an institution. It’s a bloody army! An army committing genocide.”
Artists who performed at Glastonbury have come out in support of Bob Vylan.
Amyl and the Sniffers, a band that also used their Glastonbury set to speak on Palestine, took to their Instagram account to argue that British media were using Kneecap and Bob Vylan in an attempt to show that the general audience at the festival did not have the same stance.
“[The British media] is trying to make it … appear that the public isn’t as anti-genocide as it is, and trying to make it look like Bob and Kneecap were one-offs,” the band wrote. “Artists all weekend at Glastonbury from pop to rock to punk to rap to djs spoke up [about Palestine] on stage and there were tonnes of [Palestinian] flags”.
While many social media users support the band, others condemned it.
British journalist Piers Morgan drew parallels to Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for creating Islamophobic social media posts that eventually led to the Southport killings.
“In Britain, we now jail the likes of Lucy Connolly for dumb, incendiary social media posts (that she deleted), but 1000s chant about killing people at a major music festival, live on our publicly funded broadcaster, and nobody seems to care. Outrageous double standard,” Morgan wrote on X.
Many responded to this argument, saying there was a difference.
“If you can’t differentiate between a woman calling for vulnerable people to be burned alive in a hotel whilst similar things are occurring at the time and an artist calling for the death of an institution responsible for genocide and war crimes, you lack critical thinking skills,” one social media user wrote.
Some who condemned the chant said that it referred to all Israelis because military service is mandatory in Israel.
This brought about responses saying that the claim doesn’t “absolve” Israelis of their participation in war crimes, and that there is always the option to refuse service for three months of jail time.
Chant has already spread
Whether Bob Vylan’s backlash is warranted or not, the chant has already been used both in the streets and online.
“Death death to the IOF”
Protesters in Melbourne took to the streets over the weekend in a pro-Palestine demonstration, echoing chants from the Glastonbury Festival.
A member of the punk duo Bob Vylan had chanted “death, death to the IDF” at the festival on Saturday, saying it… pic.twitter.com/zd8qWw7OUz
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) June 30, 2025
In response to a video on X showing a Palestinian boy in Gaza who is missing limbs due to an Israeli air strike, British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sitta replied with: “Death to the IDF”.
One social media user wrote in a post on X that the government and media can smear Bob Vylan and other pro-Palestine figures all they want, but the “toothpaste is out of the tube”.
“They can arrest Bob Vylan. They can ban Glastonbury. They can equate antisemitic with antigenocide. But the toothpaste is out of the tube,” the post reads.
