Massive Attack Form Alliance For Musicians Facing ‘Intimidation’ In Music Industry Over Palestinian Support

Massive Attack announced the formation of an alliance for musicians they say are facing “intimidations” within the music industry for their support of Palestine and the people of Gaza in the midst of the ongoing Israeli war against militant group Hamas.

In a statement posted on Thursday (July 17), the British trip hop group wrote, “The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description. We write as artists who’ve chose to use our public platforms to speak out agains the genocide occurring there & the role of the UK Government in facilitating it. Because of our expressions of conscience, we’ve been subject to various intimidations from within our industry (live & recorded) & legally via organized bodies such as UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI); whose range of activities has now finally been exposed in a new documentary film projected last night by the Led By Donkeys collective.”

The group added that they were aware of what they described as the “aggressive, vexatious campaigns” by UKLFI, as well as “multiple individual incidences of intimidation within the music industry itself; designed solely to censor & silence artists from speaking their hearts and minds,” adding, “having withstood these campaigns of attempted censorship, we won’t standby & allow other artists — particularly those at earlier stages of their careers or in other positions of professional vulnerability — to be threatened into silence or career cancellation.”

While the statement did not name any specific bands, it got re-shared by two acts that have come under fire recently for their pro-Palestinian comments, Northern Irish rap group Kneecap and Irish rock band Fontaines D.C., as well as Brian Eno and Garbage.

British punk duo Bob Vylan recently courted controversy by shouting “Free Palestine” and “Death to the IDF” during their Glastonbury Festival set — the latter in reference to the Israel Defense Forces — an action that led to their being dropped by their booking agent, as well as a police investigation into the incident and the cancellation of festival appearances and European tour dates with Gogol Bordello.

Those actions followed a campaign calling for Kneecap’s set at the fest to be cancelled over a terror offense charged to MC Mo Chara (born Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) by the London police in May for allegedly showing support for the militant organizations Hamas and Hezbollah — both of which are defined as terror groups by U.K. law — by displaying a Hezbollah flag onstage during a show in London last year.

In an accompanying statement, Kneecap wrote, “END threats and censorship against artists who speak out against the genocide in Palestine. Speak out. Stand up. We are the majority.” As a result of their advocacy, Kneecap were removed from the Scottish TRNSMT festival over safety concerns and their Glastonbury set was not aired as part of the BBC’s life broadcast of the show.

Fontaines D.C. posted the phrases “Free Palestine” and “Israel is committing genocide” on screens during a pair of recent sold-out London gigs and then invited a member of a pro-Palestinian group on stage at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark in June, where he led the crowd in chants of “Free Palestine.”

Massive Attack have long supported Palestinian causes, boycotting performances in Israel since 1999 and issuing a statement in April supporting Kneecap that read, “Kneecap are not the story. Gaza is the story. Genocide is the story.”

Israel’s nearly two-year war against Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the militant group on the Jewish state in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage has led to the deaths of nearly 59,000 Palestinians in the conflict so far, according to Palestinian authorities. Over the course of the military assault, Israeli forces have serially displaced the citizens of Gaza and destroyed much of the area’s infrastructure as the administration of Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to eradicate Hamas from the territory.

The massive devastation has also led to severe food shortages and claims that Israel is conducting a genocidal operation in Gaza, charges that Netanyahu has repeatedly denied. On July 3, Amnesty International issued a statement claiming that evidence the group gathered in the month since Israel introduced a controversial “militarized aid distribution system,” points to the Netanyahu administration’s continued use of “starvation of civilians as a weapon of war against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip and to deliberately impose conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction as part of its ongoing genocide.”

Massive Attack’s statement ended with a call to artists who feel they’ve been censored for their views about Palestine to contact them, in addition to a list of demands including an end of UK arms sales to Israel, an immediate cease fire and “immediate, unfettered access to Gaza for recognized international aid agencies without military threat.”

See Massive Attack’s statement below.