who led crowds<\/a> to chant \u201cdeath\u201d against Israel\u2019s military at a UK music festival this past weekend.\n <\/p>\n\n \u201cThe (State Department) has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,\u201d Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a post on X Monday.\n <\/p>\n
\n The group was slated to go on a US tour beginning in late October, according to a post on Instagram.\n <\/p>\n
\n The US State Department has instituted an aggressive visa restriction and revocation policy for alleged support of terrorism and anti-Semitism.\n <\/p>\n
\n The ban comes after rapper Bobby Vylan took to Glastonbury Festival\u2019s third-biggest West Holts Stage on Saturday, shouting \u201cFree, free Palestine,\u201d before leading crowds to chants against the Israeli military. Video showed the rapper shouting into the mic, \u201cAlright, but have you heard this one though? Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces).\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The artist also performed in front of a screen that displayed a message which read: \u201cUnited Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a \u2018conflict,\u2019\u201d referring to the UK\u2019s public broadcaster that showed the festival live.\n <\/p>\n
\n In a Sunday Instagram post captioned \u201cI said what I said,\u201d Bobby Vylan said he had received \u201cmessages of both support and hatred\u201d following the performance.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTeaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place,\u201d the post read. \u201cAs we grow older and our fire possibly starts to dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n CNN has contacted Vylan for comment.\n <\/p>\n
\n Bob Vylan\u2019s chants at the festival have also prompted outcry among top British officials, and British police are reviewing video footage of their set. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that \u201cthere is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The Israeli Embassy in the UK said it was \u201cdeeply disturbed\u201d by what it called \u201cinflammatory and hateful\u201d rhetoric at the festival.\n <\/p>\n
\n A BBC spokesperson told CNN Sunday that some of the comments made during Vylan\u2019s performance were \u201cdeeply offensive.\u201d The broadcaster streamed the rapper\u2019s set live but said it had no plans to make the performance available on demand through its iPlayer streaming platform.\n <\/p>\n
\n On Monday, the BBC admitted that \u201cwith hindsight\u201d Vylan\u2019s performance should have been pulled from air during the performance, saying that the corporation \u201crespects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves,\u201d it added.\n <\/p>\n
\n Bob Vylan\u2019s music incorporates a variety of genres with lyrics that often confront social issues such as racism, sexism, and economic inequality.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ahead of the five-day music festival, all eyes were on Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap after band member Liam O\u2019Hanna \u2013 who performs under the stage name Mo Chara \u2013 was charged last month with a terrorism offense following an investigation by London\u2019s Metropolitan Police.\n <\/p>\n
\n The charge, which he has denied, relates to a London gig in November 2024 where he allegedly displayed a flag of Hezbollah \u2013 a proscribed terrorist organization banned under UK law. Ahead of the festival at Worthy Farm, Starmer said it was not \u201cappropriate\u201d for the group to perform.\n <\/p>\n
\n While performing on the same stage Saturday afternoon, Chara told the crowds that recent events had been \u201cstressful\u201d but that it was nothing in comparison to \u201cwhat the Palestinian people are going through.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Kneecap rapper Naoise \u00d3 Caireall\u00e1in, who goes by the stage name M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap, hit back at Starmer\u2019s comment during Saturday\u2019s set: \u201cThe Prime Minister of your country, not mine, said he didn\u2019t want us to play, so f**k Keir Starmer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Police in Somerset, where the festival is held, said on Monday that after reviewing video and audio footage of both bands\u2019 performances, they determined that \u201cfurther enquiries are required\u201d and opened a criminal investigation into the matter.\n <\/p>\n
\n The investigation is in an early state, police said, adding that authorities \u201cwill closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The US State Department has revoked the visas of members of Bob Vylan, a British rap…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-27797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}