Chants of “Death to the IDF” by the rap duo Bob Vylan and its fans at the Glastonbury music festival in June do “not meet the criminal threshold” for anyone to be prosecuted, police in the United Kingdom said.
“No further action will be taken on the basis [that] there is insufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction,” Avon and Somerset Police’s statement on Tuesday read.
The police department’s decision follows an earlier one by the Metropolitan Police of London, which last month closed its investigation into the chants by Pascal Robinson-Foster, aka Bobby Vylan, the Bob Vylan duo’s lead singer and guitarist.
Prosecutors “considered a number of potential offenses but determined that, based on the information and material available, there would likely be insufficient evidence to take the case forward,” a Metropolitan Police statement read.
Israel’s embassy in London said in a statement that it was “deeply disappointing that vile calls for violence, repeated openly and without remorse, continue to fall on deaf ears.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel wrote on X about the Avon and Somerset Police’s decision: “This is completely outrageous. Is there any wonder the Islamist terrorist attacks in Manchester and Sydney cost the lives of so many Jews. What threshold wasn’t met? The U.K. police must wake up!”
