Prominent Jewish groups in the UK have demanded answers from the BBC after the corporation’s failure to interrupt a live broadcast from Glastonbury despite it being clear that extremist messages were being aired.
During a performance on Saturday from hip-hop duo Bob Vylan, the band’s vocalist, Pascal Robinson-Foster, made a series of highly incendiary statements, including leading the crowd in chants of “death to the IDF” and talking about having worked for a “f***ing Zionist”.
The band’s backdrop sported a sign saying “free Palestine” and claiming that “the United Nations has called Gaza a genocide, the BBC calls it a ‘conflict’”. In reality, the UN as a body has not called the Gaza war a genocide – a report produced by the vocally anti-Israel ‘UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied territories’ has made that claim.
Board of Deputies vice president Andrew Gilbert said: “Countless music fans and BBC viewers will have shared the shock and outrage of British Jews at seeing chants for death being led from the Glastonbury stage…alongside other hate-filled messages broadcast uninterrupted in BBC coverage.
“The Board of Deputies has responded swiftly by engaging directly with government, senior figures at the BBC, and the police.”
The statement went on to say that the Board welcomed “the BBC’s confirmation that the hateful material broadcast today will not be available on demand”, but said that “we will continue to seek answers from the BBC about how that hateful content was allowed to be broadcast and to ensure there can be no repetition of this in the future.”
The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, used similar language in a statement about Saturday’s events at the most popular music festival in the country, saying that “there is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech… The BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast.”
The Jewish Leadership Council described itself as “disgusted by the obscene display of extremist hatred that took place at Glastonbury Festival and appalled that it was shown live by our national broadcaster. Not as a news item but as a piece of entertainment. Neither Glastonbury Festival nor the BBC can claim ignorance as the risks were well documented over recent weeks.”
The statement went on to say that “the BBC must explain what due diligence was done.”
Appearing on television, the former Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, described the remarks by Bob Vylan as “incitement to violence” that “clearly overstepped the mark”, saying that she was “a bit mystified as to how the BBC continued to broadcast that live while it was happening.
“It should not have been broadcast in the way in which it was.”
The Community Security Trust said: “It is utterly chilling to see such a huge crowd at Glastonbury Festival chanting for people to be killed. This was an expression of mass hatred and many Jewish people across the country will be horrified, as will many others.
“That it was broadcast on the BBC at a time of such heightened antisemitism is a disgrace. Glastonbury Festival and the BBC need to urgently explain why this was allowed to happen, and set out how they will ensure that it never happens again.”
The Shadow Home Secretary. Chris Philp, called for the police to act, saying: “It seems clear Vylan was inciting violence and hatred. They should be arrested and prosecuted – just like the Government insisted happen during the riots last summer.
“By broadcasting his vile hatred, the BBC appear to have also broken the law. I call on the Police to urgently investigate and prosecute the BBC as well for broadcasting this. Our national broadcaster should not be transmitting hateful material designed to incite violence and conflict.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism confirmed that it was “formally complaining to the BBC over its outrageous decision not only to broadcast Bob Vylan’s calls for death and destruction, but also to place that segment on iPlayer along with Kneecap’s performance.”
The group went on to say that “our national broadcaster must apologise for its dissemination of this extremist vitriol, and those responsible must be removed from their positions.
“That must inevitably include Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director-General, who has had more than enough chances to stop this abuse of licence fee payers’ money to platform bigots and extremists from Gaza to Glastonbury.”
On Saturday, a government spokesperson confirmed that the Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, had contacted the director general for an urgent explanation of the broadcaster’s vetting process.
