The Irish rap group Kneecap continued to stir controversy during Coachella’s second weekend, criticizing Israel over its war in Gaza and leading a “free Palestine” chant during their performance. The group also projected anti-Israel statements onto the Sonora tent backdrop.
These projections, reportedly used during the first weekend as well, appeared to prompt the cutoff of the band’s livestream. By the second weekend, sets in the Sonora tent were no longer streamed—presumably in response to the messaging.
The projections read: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. Fuck Israel; free Palestine.”
While the initial weekend saw limited reaction, the second weekend drew greater scrutiny. Numerous online commentators demanded that Coachella organizers Goldenvoice and parent company AEG Presents address the incident.
Representatives for both companies did not immediately respond to Variety’s requests for comment.
Last week, the band claimed on X that Coachella had censored their protest, but reassured followers that they would be “back next Friday” and that the matter would “be sorted.” During their second-weekend set, the group led a “free, free Palestine” chant and declared, “the Irish are not so longer persecuted under the Brits, but we were never bombed under the fucking skies with nowhere to go.”
Kneecap was not the only act to voice support for Palestinians. British punk duo Bob Vylan displayed a Palestinian flag during their first weekend set and also commented on Gaza. The duo also performed in the Sonora tent, though it’s unclear whether similar messages were delivered.
Former music executive Scooter Braun, who last year helped stage an exhibit in Israel and Los Angeles about the October 7 Hamas attacks, took to Instagram to defend Goldenvoice founder Paul Tollett.
“This is my friend Paul Tollett, the founder of [Coachella],” Braun wrote in a Sunday post. “He is someone who lives and breathes the festival community. He fights for artists and he fights for all people. When I invited him to the opening of the Nova music exhibit in Los Angeles, he was the first person from the industry to accept. He came on his own time and spent five hours in the exhibit and then met with survivors of nova and invited them to the festival this year as his guest. He cried with them, he laughed with them, and he continues to advocate for them. Let’s not lose sight of who this man is, and let us stand with him in this moment when a group, without his knowing, took advantage of his festival and created hate in a place that’s filled with love.”
1. Mass Civilian Casualties in Gaza
- Over 30,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children and civilians, have been killed in the 2023–2024 Gaza conflict (according to Gaza’s Health Ministry).
- The scale and intensity of Israeli airstrikes in densely populated areas are cited as evidence of disproportionate force.
2. Forced Displacement and Starvation
- Israeli military orders for civilians to evacuate large areas of Gaza have displaced over 1.8 million people.
- Humanitarian agencies report that Israel has severely restricted access to food, water, and medicine, contributing to famine-like conditions—which some experts argue can qualify as genocidal acts (e.g., Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention: “Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group…”).
3. Destruction of Infrastructure
- Systematic targeting of hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and homes may be viewed as acts aimed at dismantling Palestinian society in Gaza.
4. Statements by Israeli Officials
- Some international lawyers and UN officials (like UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese) have cited statements by Israeli political and military leaders that dehumanize Palestinians or suggest an intent to wipe out entire communities. For example:
- Defense officials describing the need to “flatten Gaza.”
- Politicians referring to Palestinians as “human animals.”