Sharon Osbourne has urged US authorities to revoke work visas for Kneecap after the Irish language rap group used a performance at Coachella to denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The TV presenter accused the band of hate speech and supporting terrorist organisations and said it should not be allowed to perform in the US. “I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa,” she exhorted followers on X on Tuesday.
Fox News commentators also condemned the band and accused it of bringing “Nazi Germany” sentiments to America.
Kneecap scorned the Fox News comments and posted supportive messages from fans, saying it had received thousands of such endorsements as well as “hundreds of violent Zionist threats”. Almost all the concerts of a US tour scheduled for October have sold out, it added.
The trio, Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara from Belfast and DJ Próvaí from Derry, have built a following in the US with a mix of Irish republican totems, punk spirit and a film that stormed last year’s Utah film festival.
During their set last weekend at Coachella, the California desert music festival, Mo Chara said Britain had persecuted Irish people but not bombed them from the skies. “The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”
The performers led the audience in chants of “free, free Palestine” and screened pro-Palestinian messages on to screens. “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” said one. “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes,” said another. The last used an expletive against Israel.
Osbourne, a judge on the TV show America’s Got Talent, said the festival had “compromised its moral and spiritual integrity” by allowing Kneecap and Green Day to denounce Israel over the 18-month war.
“Music’s primary purpose is to unite people. It should not be a venue for promoting terrorist organisations or spreading hate”, she said, singling out Kneecap’s “aggressive” political statements.
“This band openly support terrorist organisations. 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.”
Fox News commentators compared the band’s comments to Nazi Germany, with one saying the band should be removed from “authority positions” and that the “values of education” should be re-instilled.
Kneecap posted a clip of the segment and said the commentator’s admission that she had not previously heard of the band was the “only part of this shite that made any sense”.
The group said they had planned to denounce “US-backed genocide in Gaza” at an earlier performance in Coachella, on 11 April, but that the comments did not appear on the screen. The band also complained that the festival’s livestream did not carry a chant celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher.