After ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’ video, Irish band Kneecap denies supporting terror groups
UK police investigating; group member also waved flag of Lebanon-based terror group at London gig; band denies call to ‘kill your local MP’ was incitement to violence
Irish rappers Kneecap have denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and apologized to the families of murdered British politicians amid a row over slogans promoting the terror groups shouted by the band at concerts.
The denial, issued late Monday on social media, came after UK police said they were examining footage from a Kneecap concert in London last year that appeared to show a band member shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”
The band member was draped in a Hezbollah flag at the time.
Both Hezbollah and Hamas are banned as terrorist organizations in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.
In February, the band posted a photo on social media of a balaclava-wearing individual, also apparently a group member, reading a book of statements by slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin urged the band to “clarify” whether they support the terror groups or not, but said “it’s not clear to me that they do.”
You’re so right, Taoiseach. It is extremely unclear what Kneecap’s stance is in this regard.
I know one of them is filmed here screaming ‘up Hamas, up Hezbollah’ while draped in a Hezbollah flag, but who’s to know what he truly means by that? It remains a mystery to us all. https://t.co/C3MQvlZNkF pic.twitter.com/Tb94dpGjvo
— Rachel Moiselle (@RachelMoiselle) April 28, 2025
The band said on Monday “let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah.”
“We condemn all attacks on civilians, always,” the band said.
UK police also said they were examining a video clip of the Belfast rap trio at a 2023 gig appearing to show one member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) February 23, 2025
The family of Conservative MP David Amess, who was fatally stabbed by an Islamic State group follower in 2021, called for an apology from Kneecap.
The Belfast-based trio said in a statement on its Instagram channel that they “reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever.”
“An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of context, is now being exploited and weaponized, as if it were a call for action,” said the statement.
“To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt,” it said, also referring to the Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016 by a neo-Nazi sympathizer a week before the divisive Brexit referendum.
Kneecap has also courted criticism during an ongoing tour due to its hardline anti-Israel messaging during gigs.
Sharon Osborne, a British television presenter, urged the revocation of their US work visas after their performance at California’s Coachella, one of the world’s highest-profile music festivals, on April 18.
Messages displayed on a screen behind the band as it performed included “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine” and “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
The 72-year-old Osborne, a former judge on the X Factor talent show, blasted Kneecap’s “aggressive political statements” and alleged that Kneecap turned Coachella “into a Hamas fan club.”
“[Our] statements aren’t aggressive. Murdering 20,000 children is though,” the band, who rap in both the Irish and English languages, said in a statement sent to AFP.
The war in Gaza followed an attack in Israel by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Fifty-nine hostages remain in captivity, of whom 24 are believed to be alive, according to Israeli intelligence assessments.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Monday that more than 52,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
The Times of Israel Community.