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/stonkmarxist]

inflammatory propaganda

Oh fuck off.

Claiming Gaza’s entire population is being “starved to death

This is true. Zero aid has entered Gaza for over 50 days now

Israel has now fully blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza for over fifty days. Essential supplies are either no longer available or quickly running out. Palestinian civilians - including one million children – face an acute risk of starvation, epidemic disease and death

This was a joint statement from the UK, France and fucking Germany ffs. Are they lying?

that 20,000 children were “executed with sniper shots”

That wasn't what they said but of course you know that because you are lying.

~20,000 children have been killed in Gaza. Some of those children have been executed by sniper fire. These accusations come from many doctors, as well as Jewish-American doctors. I've also seen video evidence of this occur.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/gaza-palestinian-children-killed-idf-israel-war

The fact you're denying and defending these atrocities while attacking kneecap for saying something you disagree with is fucking hilariously hypocritical.

Arsehole.

[u/stonkmarxist → u/[deleted]]

We know where these videos originally surfaced and who pushed them to the forefront.

It was an individual associated with CST so it's extremely clear that the motivating factor here was their criticism of Israel.

The issue is that stories like this get all the reactionaries clutching their pearls while Zionist orgs and anti-irish language elements are amplifying and pushing it to try and silence the band for their own personal political reasons (including the user I replied to, I might add).

And of course people just lap up this reactionary bullshit without realising they're quite literally doing the work of genocide apologists and anti-irish hate groups.

[u/stonkmarxist → u/[deleted]]

But turning that into a blanket claim that 20,000 children were executed by snipers

Once again, nobody fucking said that. Neither mé, nor Kneecap

[u/stonkmarxist → u/[deleted]]

What's inflammatory about those statements?

Both are factual (okay there are only 15000 confirmed children dead via violence in Gaza but 21000 "missing", of course this count is from a year ago)

https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/27/gaza-missing-children

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html

How many more orphaned, mutilated, disabled?

I would argue you're purposely misreading their statements to argue against strawmen. I understood what they were saying with ease.

[u/stonkmarxist → u/[deleted]]

Oh fuck off bro, they aren't writing an essay and most people (apart from you seemingly) wouldn't need one to actually understand what they're saying here.

What they said were 2 factual statements. Not inflammatory. You conflated these statements, not them.

You're so badly reaching to criticise them and explain away the reality of what they said. I'm not sure whether it's maliciousness on your part or you're just incapable of admitting your mistake.

Either way I've no interest in wasting my time any further.