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Britain’s political and media class are currently seething with performative rage over a slogan chanted at a music festival last weekend. After rap duo Bob Vylan led the Glastonbury crowd in a chorus of “Death, death to the IDF,” the incident was almost universally decried as a carnival of antisemitism — from national newspapers to the UK culture minister, the chief rabbi and Jewish organizations, the director of Glastonbury, and even the BBC, which was broadcasting the festival live.
These knee-jerk responses to a musician’s chants reflect an alarming escalation in the repression of Palestine solidarity in the UK, coming in the wake of several other high profile attempts to criminalize public figures who spoke out for Palestine. But the incident also represents a microcosm of the growing chasm between those in power, who continue to actively support or enable Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, and the broader public, who are increasingly horrified by that violence.
First, let’s be clear: however caustic it may be, “Death to the IDF” is not an antisemitic slogan. The IDF is a military, which for nearly two years has been carrying out the Israeli government’s genocidal designs in Gaza, and has been oppressing Palestinians as an occupying force for more than half a century. Vylan’s words were a response to this, and attempting to portray justifiable public ire toward the Israeli army’s war crimes as an irrational hatred of Jewish people is both intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt.
Read HERE the full article by +972 Mag
