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Irish Rap Group Kneecap Denies Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah While Again Accusing Israel of ‘Genocide’
Mo Chara (Naoise O Caireallain), Moglai Bap (Liam Og O Hannaidh), Rich Peppiatt and DJ Provai of Kneecap attend the 2025 BAFTAs on February 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
The Irish rap trio Kneecap clarified on Monday that it does not support Hamas and Hezbollah, despite recently resurfaced footage showing the group glorifying the US- and UK-designated terrorist organizations at a concert last year.
Footage circulating on social media from a Kneecap concert in November 2024, at the Kentish Town Forum in London, showed one member of the group shouting at the audience “Free Palestine … up Hamas, up Hezbollah” before walking off stage. The Kneecap member had a Hezbollah flag draped over his shoulder as he made the remarks.
The concert took place a little over a year after the Hamas-led deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, during which terrorists murdered 1,200 people and took 251 hostages back to the Gaza Strip. The group members of Kneecap go by the stage names DJ Próvaí, Mo Chara, and Móglaí Bap.
It is illegal to express support for Hamas and Hezbollah, both Iran-backed Islamist terror groups, in the UK. Metropolitan Police said on Sunday that videos from the concert are being assessed by its counterterrorism unit “to determine whether any further police investigation may be required.”
Kneecap said in a released statement on Monday that “we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah.”
“We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation’s history,” the group added, in a statement posted on social media. “They want you to believe words are more harmful than genocide. Establishment figures, desperate to silence us, have combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria.”
The Metropolitan Police counterterrorism unit is also assessing video from another Kneecap concert in London in November 2023, during which one member of Kneecap said: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP [Member of Parliament].”
Kneecap explained in its statement on Monday that it rejects “any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever.” The group also apologized to the families of murdered British MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox, who were offended by the “kill your local MP” comment from 2023. The group said, “We send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt.”
“An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponized, as if it were a call to action,” the group claimed. “This distortion is not only absurd – it is a transparent effort to derail the real conversation.”
Kneecap then began to spew hateful and anti-Israel rhetoric by accusing the Jewish state of genocide, falsely claiming that 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “are currently being starved to death by Israel” and alleging that “children were being systematically executed” by Israel. The group has made similar anti-Israel comments many times in the past, including on social media.
“This is where real anger and outrage should be directed towards,” the group suggested. “Kneecap’s message has always been — and remains — one of love, inclusion, and hope. This is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes, and cultures and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our gigs. No smear campaign will change that.”
Footage from Kneecap’s 2023 and 2024 concerts resurfaced online last week and sparked controversy following the anti-Israel messaging that the group shared on stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California earlier this month. Since the Coachella incident, two major music festivals in Germany rescinded invitations to have Kneecap perform.
Other music festivals around the world are facing pressure from pro-Israel activists to pull the Irish group from its lineup of performers, and Kneecap was dropped from its US booking agency and lost its US work visa. The UK government, British politicians, and pro-Israel supporters around the world have also condemned the group’s hateful comments and actions, with some even calling for the trio to be prosecuted.
Kneecap responded to the criticism in its statement on Monday.
“Suddenly, days after calling out the US administration at Coachella to applause and solidarity, there is an avalanche of outrage and condemnation by the political classes of Britain,” the group said. “The real crimes are not in our performances; the real crimes are the silence and complicity of those in power. Shame on them.”
Along with the statement, Kneecap uploaded on social media a photo that showed a wall with a spray-painted message that said: “Thank you * Kneecap * for being the voice of the oppressed you [sic] music and activism will for all of history. [Love] From Gaza.” A heart was spray painted beside the message.
The post Irish Rap Group Kneecap Denies Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah While Again Accusing Israel of ‘Genocide’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.