KNEECAP AND BON VYLAN: REASSERTING OUR SHARED HUMANITY

 

Irish rap group Kneecap and American punk-rap duo Bob Vylan have reasserted our shared humanity and refused to allow western politicians and the media to normalise genocide. 

GAZA HAS proved to be the graveyard of western morality. Yet while they have actively collaborated with Israel and allowed it to commit genocide in Gaza, western politicians and their cheerleaders still think they can claim the moral high ground and lecture others about what is right or wrong. 

Over the weekend, two artists performing at Glastonbury found themselves under attack for daring to express their profound anger and shame at the complicity of their Western governments in the genocide being committed in Gaza.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was 'appalled' by on-stage chanting against the Israeli military. During a performance by punk-rap duo Bob Vylan, the duo chanted 'Death, death to the IDF', in reference to the Israel Defence Forces. Apparently, according to Starmer, it's not acceptable to say such things but it's entirely acceptable for the IDF to kill children in Gaza. Official figures say that over 17,000 children have been killed, but the real figure will prove to be far higher. 

Earlier, Starmer said it was not 'appropriate' that the Irish rap group Kneecap should perform at Glastonbury. They, too, have committed the cardinal sin of condemning Israel's genocidal war in Gaza.  Against Starmer's expressed wishes, Glastonbury organisers still allowed Kneecap to perform — to a huge and cheering crowd, with many people waving Palestinian flags.

Western governments and their supporters, including the Zionist lobby, cannot think they can position themselves atop the pinnacle of fairness and justice when, at the same time, they continue to support the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children. Nor can media organisations, like the BBC and our own TVNZ and RNZ, claim the moral high ground when they continue to whitewash genocide as a 'conflict'. 

Gaza has exposed western hypocrisy and double standards. Liberal intellectuals have long claimed the moral high ground by championing justice whether it be in favour or against western interests. Why is the Israeli situation different?

The German political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt observed that evil is not a great monster that stalks the earth. Rather, she said, it is the quiet bureaucracy of complicity. It is the silence of complicity, and the silencing of dissent.

We cannot allow people like Starmer to redraw the boundaries of what is and isn't acceptable and, in the process, normalise genocide. By protesting through their music, Kneecap and Bob Vylan have reasserted our shared humanity.