“How can people profess to be more offended by an idiot rapper in Somerset than they are by the continuing carnage in Gaza?”

JOE.ie - James O'Brien perfectly sums up Glastonbury controversy



James O’Brien has perfectly dismantled the “double standards and hypocrisy” over Bob Vylan’s anti-Israel military chants from Glastonbury.

If you hadn’t heard of rap-punk duo Bob Vylan before, you almost certainly have thanks to the last couple of days. The music act have made national headlines following their Glastonbury set where they led chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].”

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The set was on Saturday, but it was yesterday that the storm around their performance really peaked. Bob Vylan have been dropped by their talent agency, had their US visas revoked and are under police investigation – along with Kneecap – for their comments.

But many have pointed out how the comments of a rap-punk group have managed to make more headlines in the UK than almost any of the atrocities taking place in Gaza, at the hands of the IDF.

Speaking on his LBC show on Monday, James O’Brien made this exact point, asking: “How can people profess to be more offended by an idiot rapper shouting bilge from a stage in Somerset than they are by the continuing carnage in Gaza?

“It’s extraordinary when you stop to think about it, right?”

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The presenter said the situation in Gaza is “17 million times worse than anything that happened at Glastonbury over the weekend.”

O’Brien went on to point out how a member of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet had recently called for “every Palestinian man in Gaza to be killed – that is genocide.”

He said: “He’s literally calling for a genocide. This isn’t whataboutery. This is speaking to the double standards and hypocrisy that many people in this country find increasingly hard to comprehend.”

At the same time as the UK papers raged about Bob Vylan and Kneecap, at least 20 Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrikes on a seafront cafe in Gaza.

There have been pretty much daily reports of Palestinians being killed by IDF fire whilst waiting for aid. The UN says that more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in such instances.

Keep an eye out to see how much coverage this gets in the papers ahead of Bob Vylan and Kneecap…