US State Department Revokes Bob Vylan’s Visas Following Anti-IDF Chant At Glastonbury

Over the weekend at Glastonbury, British rap-punk outfit Bob Vylan made their pro-Palestine stance abundantly clear. Their stage backdrop read, “Free Palestine. United Nations have called it a genocide. The BBC calls it a ‘conflict,'” and member Bobby Vylan led the crowd in a “Free Palestine” chant, before asking: “Have you heard this one, though?: Death, death to the IDF!” The BBC, who was broadcasting certain festival sets, called the chant “deeply offensive,” and Glastonbury organizers also said they were “appalled.” Afterwards, local police also said they were assessing some Glastonbury performances “to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation,” and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “there is no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech.” Meanwhile, Bobby was at home happily eating ice cream and hanging out with his daughter.

Bob Vylan were planning to tour the US starting this October, and I’m sure the Glastonbury news would’ve resulted in a deservedly great turnout. But now the future of the duo’s touring schedule is a bit up the air, as that “death to the IDF” chant has led the US State Department revoke Bob Vylan’s visas. Bobby Vylan’s bandmate, who goes by Bobbie Vylan, shared a response on Instagram this morning. The video since been removed, but here’s what he said in it:

So I’m not too sure who is going to see this because Instagram’s taken down something I posted this morning already, but if I read this instead of just write it, hopefully, it will stay up and people can see it. The headline of it is: don’t let the media distract you from what’s truly important. I do want to talk about the response from politicians, a lot of whom should be utterly ashamed about where their allegiances lie, but I prefer to give room to this. First it was Kneecap, now it’s us too. And once the talk tapers off, they’ll find others so they can stoke more anger and reinforce the division. Certain sections of the news media want a boogeyman, some perceived great threat so they can capture people’s focus. They want to control this country’s narrative to frame genocide as Israel defending itself — because it’s the victim in this — as if we haven’t seen it violating the rights of Palestinians for decades. These outlets want to make it appear as though public support in the UK is for this occupying military force. Don’t buy it. Keep your focus on what’s important. Regardless of how it was said, calling for an end to the slaughter of innocents is never wrong. To the civilians of Israel, understand this anger is not directed at you, and don’t let your government persuade you that a call against an army is a call against the people. To Keir, Kemi and the rest of you, I’ll get you at a later date. But for now, everyone keep your heads up, your voice is loud, and together we’ll effect change. Free Palestine.

Meanwhile, Bob Vylan have been dropped by their booking agency, United Talent Agency. The duo no longer appears on UTA’s website. UTA has not commented on the decision, but Deadline reports that “insiders” at the company shared Glastonbury’s stance that Bobby Vylan’s comments had crossed a line.