Hungary banned Kneecap, a three-member band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, from entering the country, saying it constituted a national security risk.
The trio had been scheduled to perform on Aug. 11, the closing day of the annual Sziget Festival (Aug. 6-11), one of the largest music festivals in Europe.
In a post to X, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said that the decision to ban the hip-hop group was due to “antisemitic hate speech and open praise for Hamas and Hezbollah.”
In a July 11 letter to festival organizers, Hungary’s Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka cited the government’s “zero tolerance” policy toward antisemitism.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and other government members have often stressed their “zero tolerance” policy, making Hungary arguably the safest country in Europe for Jews at a time of growing antisemitism.
Hungarian authorities were supported by a petition signed by hundreds of members of the country’s musical and cultural community calling for Kneecap to be dropped from the festival.
Kneecap’s Liam O’Hanna, aka Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, 27, the band’s founding member, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged under the United Kingdom’s Anti-Terrorism Act when a video emerged online of him displaying a Hezbollah flag and shouting, “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah,” at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum during a Nov. 21, 2024 concert.
The Metropolitan Police said that he showed the flag “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organization.”
Kneecap said, “We deny this ‘offense’ and will vehemently defend ourselves.”
O’Hanna’s first court hearing was on June 18. He is out on bail and due to appear for a second hearing on Aug. 20.
Also, at the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts on June 28, O’Hanna told the audience that “Israel are war criminals,” and led the crowd in chants of “Free, free, Palestine.”
In April, Kneecap was dropped by its U.S. booking agent and visa sponsor after making anti-Israel statements at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival festival in California.
Messages displayed on screens during its performance included, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” “It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes” and “F**k Israel, free Palestine.”
Kneecap has a 21-date North American tour scheduled for the fall, but may struggle to secure visas, The New York Times reported.
On July 3, a Paris suburb rescinded a €40,000 (nearly $46,500) subsidy for August’s Rock en Seine music festival in response to Kneecap’s inclusion in the festival’s lineup.
The town council of the western Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud emphasized that while it supports cultural programming, it will not finance political action or incitement to violence.
The group is also facing pushback in Canada, where it is scheduled to perform a series of concerts in October. On July 12, a group of Canadian indigenous leaders urged the cancellation of the shows.
“Kneecap has outwardly supported antisemitism, genocide and the indiscriminate murder of civilians,” the native leaders wrote. “Allowing them to play in Canada would be a stain on our country’s reputation.”
