Glastonbury has long styled itself as the spiritual heartland of British counterculture: a muddy utopia where peace signs, protest chants, and vegan falafel coexist under tie-dyed banners proclaiming love and liberation. But this weekend, punk-rap duo Bob Vylan exposed the sharp edge of that utopian fantasy.

Their chant – “Death, death to the IDF” – delivered to an electrified crowd at the West Holts Stage, tore through the festival’s aura of inclusive radicalism and plunged it into a darker debate: when does protest become hate speech, and who decides?

The Fallout

Festival organisers swiftly condemned the chant as crossing “a line,” while the BBC pulled the set from its online platforms, attaching warnings about “very strong and discriminatory language” during the live stream. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy demanded explanations for how such language was broadcast at all, while Sir Keir Starmer called it “appalling hate speech.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c33514nryy1o 

Police launched an investigation into potential hate speech or incitement to violence. Jewish organisations expressed deep concern over what they saw as a direct threat to Israelis and, by extension, to Jewish communities worldwide.

Under UK law, hate speech is criminalised if it incites violence or hatred against a protected group. Whether Bob Vylan’s chant meets that threshold remains under........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)