After yesterday’s controversies at Glastonbury with Kneecap’s chants of “fuck Keir Starmer,” and Bob Vylan’s calls to “Kill the IDF” - which is now being investigated by police and has prompted a condemnation of the band from Glastonbury itself which stated, there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence” - Nadine Shah took to the stage on Sunday lunchtime with a backdrop displaying images of a devastated Gaza and ended the set by playing voice notes from Palestinian children, many simply saying, “I’m still alive.” Shah was in tears as these played.
The singer has been a vocal supporter of Kneecap throughout the recent Terrorism charges brought against their singer Mo Chara for allegedly voicing support for Hamas and Hezbollah during a gig last year. She also recently posted ‘Fuck the BBC’ on her Instagram page, and explaining it was because they had pulled the broadcast of a documentary called Gaza: Medics Under Fire.
While for the most part during her set of intense pop, she let the moving backdrop behind her do the talking for her - it was designed by digital artist Cold War Steve and ended on an image of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu sat on sunchairs in a bombed-out Gaza, with Keir Starmer serving them cocktails - at the end of the show she read out an open letter by Artists for Palestine UK in support of Palestine Action, the direct action organisation who the government are proposing to ban under anti-terrorism laws.
She read that Palestine Action was intervening in a genocide and that, “We deplore the government's decision to proscribe it. Labeling nonviolent direct action as terrorism is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy.
The real threat to the life of the nation comes not from Palestine action but from the Home Secretary's efforts to ban it.”
She continued to say they were calling on the government to withdraw its proposed ban and to “stop arming Israel.”
Shah then added, in relation to the planned upcoming ban: “If I read this out after July 4th, I could potentially be prosecuted for that.”
After playing one more song, the group lined up on the stage as the voices of those children were played. Shah was visibly moved as the audio was heard.
Gaza has been central to this year’s Glastonbury, with many artists vocalising support for the nation. With tensions rising - outside the festival at least - expect more controversy today.
