Kneecap has expressed itself politically on several occasions during its performances and the singer Liam O'Hanna is prosecuted for terrorist crimes after, among other things, having shown a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year.
The Jewish Central Council demanded at the beginning of the month that Way Out West cancel Kneecap because they "pose a threat to Jews and Israelis".
So far, the organizer Luger has not responded to any questions about the booking of Kneecap. However, they receive support from an unexpected direction: the network Jewish Call welcomes Kneecap to Sweden in a post on Instagram where they also turn against "the use of accusations of anti-Semitism as a tool for censorship".
The term anti-Semitism is often used to silence legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and their violations of human rights, says Matylda Jonas-Kowalik, a member of the network Jewish Call to GP.
In a written comment, Luger responds to TT that the festival "strives to be a platform where different opinions can be expressed in a non-polarizing way. Artistic freedom will always be extremely important to us. This is also the reason why we do not want to comment on artistic expressions by our booked acts.
