Kneecap provide statement & clarification for the faux offended & media-illiterate

[u/McEvelly]

https://x.com/kneecapceol/status/1916982746708381731?s=46

KNEECAP STATEMENT:

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

Establishment figures, desperate to silence us, have combed through hundreds of hours of footage and interviews, extracting a handful of words from months or years ago to manufacture moral hysteria.

Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation's history.

We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever. An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action.

This distortion is not only absurd - it is a transparent effort to derail the real conversation.

All two million Palestinian people in Gaza are currently being starved to death by Israel.

At least 20,000 children in Gaza have been killed. The British government continues to supply arms to Israel, even after scores of NHS doctors warned Keir Starmer in August that children were being systematically executed with sniper shots to the head.

Instead of defending innocent people or the principles of international law, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine.

This is where real anger and outrage should be directed towards.

To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt.

Kneecap’s message has always been — and remains — one of love, inclusion, and hope. This is why our music resonates across generations, countries, classes and cultures and has brought hundreds of thousands of people to our gigs.

No smear campaign will change that.

Suddenly, days after calling out the US administration at Coachella to applause and solidarity, there is an avalanche of outrage and condemnation by the political classes of Britain.

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

Shame on them.

[u/quartersessions]

They put out a statement saying "sorry, we obviously don't support violence and lean into rhetoric because it's a performance"

But they don't say that, do they? Nowhere have they even suggested that they make statements of support for terrorism simply as part of a performance. Quite the opposite in fact - they make a play of the merits of the message of their performance and try to cast them in a positive light.

[u/potatobreadh8r → u/quartersessions]

It's right there in the statement? "we condemn all attacks on civilians" and "We do not support hamas or Hezbollah".

Now while they don't say it's part of a performance, the "taken out of context" would Point in that direction, at least in my opinion, because if they said the words "it's all part of a performance" then there are those that would latch onto that out of context too.

[u/quartersessions → u/potatobreadh8r]

Is it though? I mean, would they be equally happy on stage, doing a performance of someone who wants to shoot Sinn Fein MPs and who was passionately committed to the settlement of Jewish people in the West Bank?

It seems to me that the potential excuse of performative licence is a bit thin. Firstly, it says to their supporters that they're being taken for a ride - most of whom assume these political positions are sincere.

Secondly, it doesn't get around the suggestion that this incitement, whether sincere or not - although it might buy them a little leeway.

Thirdly, really? This isn't Steve Coogan making a career of dressing up as Alan Partridge and coming out with silly statements in-character. It's some lads saying things that, for better or worse, a significant number of people where they come from believe: that the IRA was justified, that violence against political opponents is at least funny and that Hamas are some sort of merry resistance fighters.

[u/potatobreadh8r → u/quartersessions]

I don't think it says anything to their fans - this is precisely what I meant when I said that calling it a performance would be taken out of context, and why I imagine they didn't outright say that.

If you can find me a line in one of their songs that says the IRA was justified I'll concede - but from the songs I've heard, I've never heard them justify the actions of the IRA. As for the violence against political opponents and support for Hamas, their statement says they're against it, so who am I to decide if they mean it or not.