Kneecap: Derry Councillor 'astonished' by DUP response amid ongoing genocide

Following controversy surrounding an alleged comment made about MPs at a 2023 performance and an alleged comment regarding Hamas and Hezbollah at another event, DUP MP Carla Lockhart said she has ‘written to Authorities in the US and Canada urging them to deny entry to Kneecap in light of the ongoing counter-terrorism investigation’, in a Facebook post.

The group has since apologised to the families of two murdered MPs saying their was never any intent to cause them hurt, adding that they reject any suggestion that they would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual.

Kneecap have also made global headlines after expressing their abhorrence at the attacks on the Palestinian people and criticising Israel at a recent high profile performance at Coachella in the U.S.

DUP leader, Gavin Robinson has claimed the way Kneecap ‘engage with the arts’ is ‘grotesque’ and claimed they should be in a court instead of a stage.

Speaking at the April Full Derry City and Strabane District Council meeting, Derry Councillor Shaun Harkin said he was “astonished” by Ms Lockhart and Mr Robinson’s responses.

“What’s happening in Gaza right now is the forced removal of nearly two million people from their homes,” he said. “It’s ethnic cleansing, it’s displacement, and it’s destruction of their society.

“We do not hear from the DUP that they condemn this,” he said.

“We have MPs and the leader of the DUP continuing to stand with Israel, and yet this week there has been an attempt to basically stop talking about the genocide and focus on a band who went to the US to expose Donald Trump’s support for [it].

“I think that this is the World turned upside down and no matter what the DUP, the British Government, and the Tories try to do, they will not blind the world’s population to the fact that Israel is committing a genocide right now.

“There’s an attempt to distract people from that by focusing in on artists who have actually tried to expose this.”

Kneecap in a statement posted on social media recently said the video extracts of a “handful of words from months or years ago” were designed “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… 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.”

Andrew Balfour, Local Democracy Reporter & Brendan McDaid