Glastonbury mob: Antisemitic chants rock festival

At the 2025 Glastonbury Festival, Britain’s flagship cultural event, an act of open incitement played out on the West Holts Stage, before tens of thousands in the crowd and thousands more watching via the BBC’s livestream. Performers from Bob Vylan and the Irish rap group Kneecap led chants of “death, death to the IDF,” a slogan that has often been a proxy for broader anti-Israel, and frequently antisemitic, rhetoric.

This was not a spontaneous outburst but a staged provocation, blaring through the speakers of one of the UK’s most celebrated venues. The footage quickly circulated, prompting outrage from Jewish groups, Israeli officials, and a swathe of concerned observers. Yet instead of a swift and unequivocal condemnation from the British government, the response was cautious, qualified, and, in some quarters, openly dismissive.

Police confirmed they are “reviewing” the performances to determine “whether” the chants constitute hate speech or incitement to violence. Glastonbury organizers, under pressure, admitted the rhetoric “crossed a line.” But from Westminster, clarity was absent. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy issued a brief statement condemning antisemitism in general terms. The most revealing intervention, however, came from Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who, when asked whether the Israeli Embassy had grounds to be appalled, suggested that “those with embassies should put their own houses in order first.”

That remark—equating an open call for death on a UK stage with geopolitical disagreements about Israel’s military policy—is emblematic of the government’s drift. It signals not just reluctance but a refusal to treat antisemitism on British soil as a moral red line. Streeting, like others in his party, speaks the language of anti-racism while giving oxygen to a form of political hostility that thrives on singling out Jews and Israel.

The episode is part of a broader trend. From Premier League footballers holding up slogans of solidarity with Hamas-linked causes, to grime artists repurposing their platforms to amplify anti-Western narratives, the UK’s sports and entertainment culture is being transformed. Not merely politicized, but conscripted. Increasingly, it serves as a stage not for progressive protest but for the broadcast of anti-Zionist maximalism and selective outrage. Israel is fair game. The IDF is demonized. The West is cast as inherently oppressive. These messages are not fringe; they are now mainstream.

Glastonbury’s silence until shamed, the BBC’s decision to stream the chants without editorial caveat, and the government’s hedging all reveal the same failure: a loss of moral seriousness. Chants calling for the death of soldiers of a democratic state are not edgy political critique. They are hate speech. That they occurred in Britain, without immediate consequence, is a warning to Jews everywhere.