Irish rap group Kneecap – which has drawn a storm of criticism, help, consideration and authorized motion over the previous half-year – continued to talk out concerning the warfare in Gaza throughout a day set on the Øyafestivalen in Oslo, Norway, on Friday (Aug. 8).
Proper earlier than the trio of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí took the stage, an English-language white-text-on-black-background message performed on a video display screen, accusing the Norwegian authorities of “enabling” the “genocide” towards the Palestinian folks through investments held within the county’s sovereign wealth fund (referenced as “oil pension fund” within the message). “Over 80,000 folks have been murdered by Israel in 21 months,” the band’s message continued. “Free Palestine.” The message was greeted readily by a cheering viewers. Most estimates (together with these from well being officers within the space) place the Palestinian dying toll at greater than 60,000. That quantity doesn’t distinguish between civilians and Hamas militants. An estimated 18,500 of these killed had been youngsters.
Whereas battle between Israel and Palestinian territory has been ongoing for many years, the battle escalated on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants entered Israel and killed 1,200 folks, greater than 800 of whom had been civilians, and took 251 hostages, a minimum of 40 of whom have been killed; round 50 hostages, each lifeless and alive, stay unreleased. Israel’s ensuing invasion of Gaza has killed an estimated 60,000 and led to an ongoing humanitarian disaster, with tons of of hundreds of Palestinians displaced and going through hunger. Gaza well being authorities have reported that nearly 200 folks have died of starvation because the battle started and the United Nations has estimated that some 1300 had been killed whereas looking for meals, although Israel has regularly disputed the UN’s figures. Israel’s safety cupboard lately permitted a plan to take full management of Gaza Metropolis and forcibly relocate a minimum of 600,000 Palestinians, a transfer decried by many world leaders.
The Norwegian authorities’s connection to the warfare in Gaza is difficult. Whereas Norway has damaged with the US and Israel by recognizing Palestine as a state, the Authorities Pension Fund of Norway – which invests surplus revenues from the nation’s petroleum business and has greater than $1.9 trillion in belongings – is below scrutiny after a current piece by Aftenposten, Norway’s largest printed newspaper, reported that the sovereign wealth fund invested round $15.2 million in Guess Shemesh Engines Ltd., a jet engines components producer supplying the Israeli navy, between 2023-2024. Whereas Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg has ruled out wholesale divestment of Israeli firms, the newspaper’s revelation spurred the federal government to launch a evaluation of the sovereign wealth portfolio to make sure that it was not investing in Israeli firms contributing to the warfare in Gaza.
Midway by the Belfast group’s hour-long efficiency, they supplied up extra detailed ideas on Norway’s purported connection to the battle. “I don’t need to lecture you folks,” mentioned Kneecap’s Mo Chara, sporting a keffiyeh. “I can perceive there’s folks right here like, ‘All proper, we get it, I’m sick of yous happening.’ I want I didn’t have to speak about this, I want I didn’t need to get on stage each gig and speak about this. The actual fact is, so long as we’re on stage and so long as nothing is altering, Kneecap will all the time use this platform and this stage to name out the genocide and the warfare criminals. I don’t have to lecture you folks when your oil fund is getting used to fund the genocide.” The vast majority of Kneecap’s large crowd greeted his speech with cheers and applause; many waved Palestinian flags as he spoke. The Israeli authorities has flatly denied committing genocide towards Palestinians, and the time period stays hotly debated. Some say those that accuse Israel of genocide are motivated by antisemitism, although two Israel-based human rights organizations recently started adopting the phrase on the subject of the warfare in Gaza.
Mo Chara gave a “fast shout-out” to Øyafestivalen for “standing by Kneecap” regardless of requires its removing from the lineup, however added that he thinks “it’s a shame and a disgrace that KKR” – a world funding agency that owns Superstruct Leisure, which runs Øyafestivalen, amongst many different worldwide music festivals – “is behind all these festivals. No firm investing in Israel whereas they commit warfare crimes needs to be concerned in and collaborating in music festivals,” he concluded, with the group voicing its settlement.
Criticism of KKR wasn’t restricted to Kneecap’s set. Exterior the competition entrance on Friday, a small however vocal group of protestors gathered to induce folks to boycott Øyafestivalen over KKR. At a distinct stage, greater than an hour later Kneecap wrapped, Irish rockers D.C. Fontaines flashed an onscreen message of “Free Palestine,” which was additionally greeted enthusiastically by the group.
Mo Chara is at present going through a terrorism charge from the British authorities over purportedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a live performance in November 2024, the place the group allegedly mentioned “up Hezbollah, up Hamas.” Since then, the punk-leaning rap group launched a statement declaring “we don’t, and have by no means, supported Hamas or Hezbollah” and described video footage as “intentionally taken out of context.” Mo Chara alluded to the costs throughout the present, saying, “we love the English folks, it’s the English authorities we don’t like.” Not lengthy after Kneecap first hit the Øyafestivalen stage, they urged the viewers to offer them extra of a response: “For f—okay sake, we’re up in court docket on terrorism expenses – give me a little bit of vitality.”
In July, Kneecap had been banned from performing in Hungary over what a Hungarian politician described as “antisemitism and glorifying terror,” calling them a “nationwide safety menace.”
“The authoritarian authorities of Viktor Orban say we ‘pose a nationwide safety menace,’” the group wrote in a press release after the ban. “There isn’t a authorized foundation for his actions, no member of Kneecap has ever been convicted of any crime in any nation. We stand towards all hate crimes and Kneecap champions love and solidarity in addition to calling out injustices the place we see it…. It’s clear that is political distraction and an extra try and silence those that name out genocide towards the Palestinian folks.”