Kneecap on stage at Coachella earlier this month

The members of Kneecap have claimed they have been the centre of a “coordinated smear campaign” since their much-discussed appearance at the Coachella music festival.

Earlier this month, the West Belfast rap trio performed at Coachella, where they made an impassioned display of solidarity with Palestine amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

During the second week of the festival, they projected messages like “fuck Israel, free Palestine”, and led the Coachella crowd in a chant of “free Palestine”.

Meanwhile, band member Mo Chara also said: “The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the fucking skies with nowhere to go.

“The Palestinians have nowhere to go, it’s their fucking home and they’re bombing them from the skies. If you’re not calling it a genocide what the fuck are you calling it?”

Kneecap’s Coachella set wound up making headlines due to their political comments, exacerbated further when Sharon Osbourne suggested their US work visas should be revoked due to their remarks on stage.

“Kneecap, an Irish rap group, took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements. Their actions included projections of anti-Israel messages and hate speech, and this band openly support terrorist organisations,” she alleged.

“This behaviour raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA.”

In response to Sharon’s claim that Kneecap “took their........

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