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Widespread Palestinian Support, Criticism of Israel Displayed at Glastonbury Festival in Britain
Revellers dance as they attend the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton near Glastonbury, Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
The legendary Glastonbury Festival that took place over the weekend in Britain included dozens of displays of Palestinian support, from paraphernalia to comments made by performers, and a number of instances that featured condemnation of Israel and false claims about the Jewish state’s military actions during the ongoing Gaza war.
This year’s Glastonbury Festival, which celebrates music and the arts, featured a “Palestine” stall that sold badges, stickers, bracelets, keychains, and magnets that said “Free Palestine,” “Free Gaza,” and “Boycott Israeli Apartheid.” Some of the items depicted the state of Israel being covered entirely by the Palestinian flag, which was widely displayed across the festival grounds besides dozens of Palestinian banners.
GLASTONBURY @glastonbury have allowed a “palestine” stall to sells badges depicting Israel being wiped out entirely and replaced with just the Palestine flag.@emilyeavis you wiped off Star of David’s from the M.Levine sign.
Care to explain this too?
@__jacker__ pic.twitter.com/LswpUK9rRP
— Kosher (@KosherCockney) June 28, 2024
During their set on Friday, the British rock band Idles called for a ceasefire in the ongoing Gaza war and the Irish folk band Lankum Dublin sang to the crowd, “You’ll never take possession of the rocks of Palestine.” Norwegian singer Aurora also dedicated her performance in part to the “children in Palestine.”
British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa, who has a history of expressing pro-Palestinian views and criticizing Israel, headlined the main stage on Friday and walked into the audience during her performance, which many claim was an effort to get a nearby “Glasto for Palestine” flag in the camera shot. A video from Lipa’s performance also showed that some attendees carried LGBTQ rainbow flags with Stars of David and flags in honor of the victims of the Supernova music festival massacre near the singer.
Kudos to the one who waved 3 Nova flags and 1 Jewish Pride Flag right in front of Dua Lipa’s performance at Glastonbury music festival pic.twitter.com/XbxIyXPy8t
— Assaf Chriqui (@AssafChriqui) June 29, 2024
The Irish rap trio Kneecap — who pulled out of this year’s South by Southwest because one of its sponsors, the US Army, had ties to Israel — took to the stage at Glastonbury on Saturday. As part of their set, they displayed on large screens a “Free Palestine” message that falsely claimed “over 20,000 children have been murdered by Israel in 9 months” and that “it is being enabled by the British government.” They got encouraged fans to chant with them “Free, free Palestine.”
Some of the artists that performed at Glastonbury this year also wore Palestinian keffiyehs including Welsh singer Charlotte Church, who sang “free Palestine” multiple times during a performance on Friday when she joined Billy Bragg’s set. Also on Friday, Blur frontman Damon Albarn made a surprise appearance on stage during a performance by the indie band Bombay Bicycle Club and asked the crowd, “Are you pro-Palestine? Do you feel that it’s an unfair war?”
Throughout the five-day festival, which concluded on Sunday, there was no mention or reference on stage to the deadly massacre at the Supernova music festival that took place on Oct. 7 in southern Israel, where more than 300 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists and 40 others were taken as hostages.
Coldplay headlined the main stage at Glastonbury on Saturday and welcomed several surprise guests on stage, including Michael J Fox and Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna. During their set, the band’s lead singer Chris Martin stopped the music at one point and asked the 100,000-strong audience to send love to both Israel and “Palestine.”
“Just raise your hands like this and turn towards the main stage like this. Now, we’re gonna send a big Glastonbury love thing,” he said. “You can send it to anyone: you can send it to your grandmother, you can send it to Israel, you can send it to Palestine, you can send it to Myanmar. You can send it to Ukraine, you can send it to beautiful Russia. You can send it anywhere – you can send it all over the world from Glastonbury.”
He later thanked the crowd “for giving us and me restored faith that most humans can gather together very peacefully with all different flags, all different colors, all different genders, sexualities, ages, everything, and just sing and have a good time and ice cream, there’s no fighting, nothing like that.”
“So thank you for being inspiring to us,” he added. “And hopefully we’re sending all this out into the world all together as a beacon of togetherness in a time when it might seem like that’s impossible. You just proved that it is, so that’s amazing. Thank you.”
The post Widespread Palestinian Support, Criticism of Israel Displayed at Glastonbury Festival in Britain first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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White House Withdraws Nomination for US Hostage Envoy
FILE PHOTO: Adam Boehler, the CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation, addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, US, April 14, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
The Trump administration has withdrawn the nomination of Adam Boehler to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, the White House said on Saturday.
Boehler, who has been working to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, will continue hostage-related work as a so-called “special government employee,” a position that would not need Senate confirmation.
“Adam Boehler will continue to serve President Trump as a special government employee focused on hostage negotiations,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Adam played a critical role in negotiating the return of Marc Fogel from Russia. He will continue this important work to bring wrongfully detained individuals around the world home.”
A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Boehler withdrew his nomination to avoid divesting from his investment company. The move was unrelated to the controversy sparked by his discussions with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
“He still has the utmost confidence of President Trump,” said the official.
“This gives me the best ability to help Americans held abroad as well as work across agencies to achieve President Trump’s objectives,” Boehler told Reuters in a brief statement.
Boehler recently held direct meetings with Hamas on the release of hostages in Gaza. The discussions broke with a decades-old policy by Washington against negotiating with groups that the US brands as terrorist organizations.
The talks angered some Senate Republicans and some Israeli leaders. According to Axios, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer expressed his displeasure to Boehler in a tense phone call last week.
Boehler was given permission from the Trump administration to engage directly with Hamas, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week, calling the talks a “one-off situation” that had not borne fruit.
Boehler has been credited with helping secure the release of Fogel, a US schoolteacher who was freed by Russia in February after three and a half years in prison.
The post White House Withdraws Nomination for US Hostage Envoy first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy addressing the 38th Zionist Congress. Photo: Screenshot.
i24 News – A French intellectual superstar and a pair of German officials announced that they withdrew from a conference on antisemitism organized by the Israeli government, citing the participation of far-right figures in the Jerusalem event.
Iconic thinker Bernard-Henri Lévy, who was set to deliver the conference’s keynote address, opted out upon learning that Marion Marechal and Jordan Bardella from France’s far-right National Rally party were among the other speakers.
Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, “has decided not to attend,” his representatives told Haaretz.
“He was unaware of the other attendees when he accepted the invitation, and upon learning who the other speakers were, he decided to withdraw.”
Volker Beck, a former Green Party parliamentarian who chairs the Germany-Israel Friendship Society (DIG) also announced he was cancelling his attendance. “If we associate ourselves with extreme right-wing forces, we discredit our common cause; it also goes against my personal convictions and will have a negative impact on our fight against antisemitism within our societies.”
The post Bernard-Henri Lévy, German Officials Bow Out of Israeli Antisemitism Conference first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
i24 News – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday designated the South African ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool as a Persona Non Grata, branding Rasool a “race-bating politician.”
The decision comes after Rasool made the inflammatory allegation that Trump was “leading global white supremacist” movement.
A known supporter of the genocidal Palestinian group Hamas, Rasool even boasted that he owned a keffiyeh signed by late Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
South Africa filed a claim with the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza during its ongoing war against Hamas, a charge both Israel and the US regard as slanderous and antisemitic.
The post US Kicks Out South Africa’s Hamas-Linked Ambassador first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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