So the right wing are getting het up up about a chant. I may agree that it was out of order but demanding a prison sentence is ridiculous. Comparing the case of Connoly who was calling for migrant hotels to be torched and a chant at a pop festival “kill the IDF’. Absolutely no one at Glastonbury was going to enact the chant. I do worry that Starmer is a zionist! He condemns the chant and the use of a Palestinian flag by Kneecap. The atrocities in Gaza go largely undocumented as no journalists are allowed in the territory. And the IDF is now occupying parts of the West Bank.
I suppose I should condemn any hate speech, but when the press and politicians appear to be supporting genocide …….. there is a need for radical discussion? Would those outraged be fuming and red faced gammons if the chant had been to kill Putin or even pro-Ukraine? So maybe and only maybe, it was inappropriate, it certainly does not warrant a police investigation. We live in a country of free speech – tempered by restrictions of slander and hate speech.
The law – Hate speech is broadly defined as language that attacks or demeans a person or group based on attributes like race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.While there isn’t a universal legal definition under international human rights law, it’s generally understood as speech that incites violence, hatred, or discrimination. Laws against hate speech vary by country, but often involve restrictions on speech that is threatening, abusive, or intended to cause harassment, alarm, or distress. So the law is a little ambiguous – whether the chant iniated violence (hardly), hatred (the hatred was already there) and discrimination ( it was not anti-Jewish just IDF?).
The BBC is being castigated for not pulling the set by the rapper. Everyone seems to be having a go! I agree with Wes Streeting – “Israel should get its own house in order”. and “it was a giant publicity stunt”. But there were a lot of performers who promotedd Free Palestine. Shoud the BBC be castigated as promoted by the shit papers and Starmer! I know his wife is Jewish but she is not Israeli! But 55,000 dead and counting.?
Israel continues to slaughter Palestinians. The latest from ministers in the Knesset calls for the slaughter of all adult males in Gaza (and the West Bank).