Flag Honoring Nova Massacre Victims Spotted at UK Festival With Lineup That Includes Anti-Israel Performers
Two flags honoring victims of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack at the Supernova music festival in Israel were...
The post Flag Honoring Nova Massacre Victims Spotted at UK Festival With Lineup That Includes Anti-Israel Performers first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
Revellers watch as the sun set at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset for the Glastonbury Festival, Britain on June 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
Two flags honoring victims of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack at the Supernova music festival in Israel were seen at the 2024 Glastonbury Festival, the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world that kicked off on Wednesday.
A Glastonbury attendee shared a photo on social media of the flags in the music festival’s camping zones, where attendees can pitch tents across the festival’s fields in Somerset, England. The banners said “Nova” and “We Will Dance Again,” which has become the slogan of those who survived the Nova massacre last year. Hamas terrorists killed more than 360 people at the Israeli music festival and kidnapped about 40 others.
At Glastonbury. #WeWillDanceAgain pic.twitter.com/GSifqh4KYr
— Sabrina Miller (@SabriSun_Miller) June 27, 2024
The Glastonbury Festival — which provides programming besides concerts, such as political panel discussions — will conclude on Sunday, and British-Albanian pop star Dua Lipa is set to headline the main stage when it opens on Friday. Lipa has described Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas terrorists as “Israeli genocide.”
Glastonbury performers this year include the Irish rap trio Kneecap — who appeared on an Irish television program in February wearing clothing in the colors of the Palestinian flag and accused Israel of “genocide” — and Lambrini Girls, who pulled out of the SXSW and Great Escape festivals in protest of sponsors who had ties to Israel.
The festival’s lineup also includes singer Charlotte Church, who led a choir that chanted “From the River to the Sea” at a Sing for Palestine event, and Palestinian activist Hamze Awawde, who has compared Israel’s military actions in Gaza to the Holocaust. Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) sent a letter to Glastonbury organizers earlier this month urging them to disinvite Church and Awawde from the festival but to no avail.
“We are concerned that Jewish festival-goers will face discrimination or even danger in an environment where both invitees have previously used inflammatory antisemitic rhetoric,” CAA wrote in its letter. “Platforming Ms. Church and Mr. Awawde simply tells Jews that they are not welcome to the Glastonbury Festival.”
The BBC will live stream the 2024 Glastonbury Festival. The broadcaster explained in its impartiality guidelines that it is committed to protecting “individual expression” for musicians and performers but it must “ensure that our output does not simply embrace the agenda of any particular campaign groups.” A BBC insider told the British newspaper i that festival organizers should take measures to ensure that the event doesn’t turn into a pro-Palestinian “rally.”
“Glastonbury is going to be a sea of Palestinian flags, ‘genocide’ placards, performers wearing keffiyehs, and condemnation of Israel. The bosses need to have a plan because it will be a serious breach of BBC impartiality guidelines if it allows Gaza activists to hijack the event and turn it into a ‘free Palestine’ rally,” the insider said.
Leo Pearlman, who had produced television music shows, additionally told the newspaper i that the BBC would be in breach of its own guidelines if it ended up broadcasting a “festival of anti-Zionist hate.”
“The BBC has to work with the Glastonbury organizers to prevent this becoming a rally,” he told the newspaper. “We know we’re going to see thousands of Palestinian flags handed out. There will be placards proclaiming ‘genocide,’ ‘apartheid,’ and ‘occupation’ — of course those should be blurred. But what do you do with an entire crowd chanting ‘from the River to the Sea?'”
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