Irish rap trio Kneecap told a 45,000-strong crowd at Finsbury Park that next month will mark "the second time Kneecap have beat the British Government in court". The Belfast group performed their largest gig to date supporting Irish band Fontaines DC in London.
The performance began with the group walking on stage in front of a screen displaying "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people". Fontaines DC frontman Grian Chatten joined them to perform their collaboration Better Way To Live.
Court appearance looms for band member
Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs as Mo Chara, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court earlier this month charged with a terror offence and will return next month. Fellow member Naoise O Caireallain, who uses the stage name Moglai Bap, told the crowd "if anyone's free on the 20th of August, you wanna go to the court and support Mo Chara".
Wearing a keffiyeh, O hAnnaidh responded: "I appreciate it, the 20th of August is going to be the second time Kneecap have beat the British Government in court - in their own court, on their own terms, and we're going to beat them for the second time. I tell you what, there is nothing like embarrassing the British Government."
Previous legal victory against Government
Last year Kneecap won a discrimination challenge over a decision by former business secretary Kemi Badenoch to refuse them a £14,250 funding award. The UK Government conceded it was "unlawful" after the band launched legal action claiming the decision discriminated against them on grounds of nationality and political opinion.
It was agreed that the £14,250 sum would be paid by the Government to the group. The crowd echoed the Belfast group's chants when they repeated the "f*** Keir Starmer" and "you're just a s*** Jeremy Corbyn" comments made at Glastonbury the previous weekend.
Gaza conflict dominates performance
During the performance the group intermittently broke off the mosh pits and raucous crowd by addressing the war in Gaza, which is a recurring theme of their shows. O hAnnaidh said: "It's usually around this point of the gig that we decide to talk about what's happening in Palestine."
He continued: "I understand that it's almost inhumane that I'm thinking of new things to say on stage during a genocide, for sound bites. It's beyond words now, like, we always used to say obviously they're being bombed from the skies with nowhere to go, but it's beyond that now."
Band vows to continue speaking out
O hAnnaidh told the crowd that Palestinians "have been being starved for a few months on end, and not only that, the areas that they have set up, to collect aid and food, have turned into killing fields and they're killing hundreds a day trying to collect food". He added: "It's beyond words, but again, we played in Plymouth last night to 750 people and we did the same thing, so it doesn't matter how big or small our audience is, Kneecap will always use the platform for talking about this."
O Caireallain had said earlier in the show: "They can try and silence us, they can try and stop us, but we're not going to stop talking about Palestine - as long as there's a genocide happening in Palestine we're going to keep talking about it and yous are going to keep talking about it, and they can't stop us." The UN human rights office has recorded 613 killings near humanitarian convoys and at aid distribution points in Gaza run by an Israeli-backed American organisation since it began operations in late May.
UN reports on Gaza casualties
On Friday UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the rights office was not able to attribute responsibility for the killings, but "it is clear that the Israeli military has shelled and shot at Palestinians trying to reach the distribution points" operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The GHF has denied any serious injuries or deaths on its sites and says shootings outside their immediate vicinity are under the purview of Israel's military.
The Israeli military has said previously it fires warning shots to control crowds or at Palestinians who approach its troops.
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
