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Massive turnout outside court to support Kneecap’s Mo Chara as UK tries to silence criticism of Israel

A UK court has released rapper Mo Chara on unconditional bail after a witch hunt against him and his group Kneecap following their vocal opposition to the US-Israel genocide in Gaza. Ahead of the hearing, meanwhile, a large crowd gathered in solidarity.

The cynical attempts by genocide apologists to silence Kneecap and other anti-genocide voices have backfired, with the band’s popularity increasing significantly since it became a target back in April. The Northern Irish group had shared simple facts at the Coachella festival, such as:

Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people

Despite the denials of politicians supporting or participating in this genocide, there is a global scholarly consensus – including among academics from Israel itself – that the apartheid state has been committing genocide since October 2023.

Pro-Israel agitators reacted to Kneecap’s public show of solidarity with Palestinians by pushing counter-terror police to investigate provocative but out-of-context comments from Kneecap members. One legal campaigner noted how the police responded to this much more quickly than they usually do for “actual perpetrators & enablers of genocide, famine & war crimes”.

Outside the hearing today, protesters showed their opposition to attempts to silence free speech amid the ongoing genocide:

Kneecap also arranged for messages of solidarity around London. These referenced the racist ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’ signs of the past:

No distraction from genocide!

Hours before Mo Chara was in court, Kneecap highlighted Israel’s latest massacre of dozens of Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a highly controversial US-Israeli ‘death trap‘ organisation that has lured hundreds of people to their deaths so far. And Kneecap said:

Today 51 people were murdered trying to get flour from a US/Israeli company pretending to be a charity…

Meanwhile tomorrow they will try label Mo Chara a terrorist.

The whole world can see the deep evil of Israel and the UK government who arm and cheer them on.

As Kneecap has stressed previously:

We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay.

It also opposed genocide-apologists’ “transparent effort to derail the real conversation”. By attacking the band’s vocal critiques of Israeli crimes, it said:

They want you to believe words are more harmful than genocide.

Adding that “the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine”, they asserted:

The real crimes are not in our performances; the real crimes are the silence and complicity of those in power.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.