Irish rap group Kneecap has cancelled its October tour of the United States amid an ongoing firestorm over the band’s pro-Palestinian advocacy that has landed one member in legal trouble.
In an announcement on X, the group cited the ongoing legal battle of band member Mo Chara, who is currently facing a terrorism charge in British court for displaying a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London last year.
“Due to the proximity of our next court hearing in London to the first date of the tour, as the British government continues it’s witch hunt, we will have to cancel all 15 US tour dates in October,” Kneecap wrote in the post.
The tour had been nearly sold out, coming six months after Kneecap vaulted into public view when the group projected the words “F–k Israel. Free Palestine” on stage during its last U.S. performance, at the Coachella music festival in April.
The group said it would be “sharing something very special for U.S. fans next week so we can still link with you all in October. It’s top secret for now but all will be revealed next week.”
The announcement of the cancellation comes one day after a group of Jewish protesters was escorted out of Kneecap performance in Paris.
The group Nous Vivrons, formed after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to combat antisemitism in France, staged the protest at the Rock en Seine festival, held in a Paris suburb. Minutes into Kneecap’s performance, the group’s members began blowing whistles and displaying signs in French that said “Antisemites out of our festivals.”
One of the band members stopped the set, saying into the mic, “They want to try and stop us, they didn’t want us to play the festival, they want to drive us out with whistles, but we’re not going to let them get a word,” before leading the crowd in a chant of “Free, free Palestine.”
The demonstrators with Nous Vivrons were then escorted out of the concert by security, according to Benjamin Cymerman, the collective’s vice president.
“We were escorted back to the metro by the police for our safety, because there was violence around us,” Cymerman told Le Parisien. “We have identified two people against whom we will file a complaint. We would have liked to stop the concert, but we are at least happy to have interrupted it.”
Kneecap posted a video of the protesters on social media, writing, “A group of Zionists with flags and whistles tried to interrupt the start of our gig in Paris just now.”
The band also quoted one member on stage who told the crowd, “We’re not like them. We’re not like Israel. We’re not here to cause fights. It’s all love, it’s all support for Palestine.” In the video, one band member shouts “f–ck off” at the protesters as they are escorted out.
Nous Vivrons has held several rallies drawing attention to antisemitism in France, including after the alleged antisemitic assault of the chief rabbi of the French city Orléans in March and the antisemitic rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in June 2024.
Last month, Nous Vivrons filed a defamation complaint against a French member of parliament who described the collective as a “violent and racist group” accused of “supporting Israeli war crimes” and “promoting genocide.”
“We have nothing against artists who want a free Palestine,” Cymerman told Le Parisien. “We are also supporters of two states. But we fight against antisemitism, and we believe that this group, which supports Hezbollah, has no place at festivals.”
Prior to the band taking the stage in Paris, the group displayed a series of messages in French including, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people” and “The French government is complicit: it sells and facilitates the arms trade to the Israeli army.”
Kneecap’s performance had already courted controversy ahead of its set. Local municipalities, including the suburb of Saint-Cloud and wider Ile-de-France region, pulled their funding over the group’s presence, while Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned that he would monitor the concert for “any comments of an antisemitic nature, apology for terrorism or incitement to hatred.”
“They are desecrating the memory of the 50 French victims of Hamas on October 7, as well as all the French victims of Hezbollah,” said Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, who had also called for the cancellation of the performance.
Some of the demonstrators at Sunday’s performance were also affiliated with Betar Worldwide, a right-wing militant pro-Israel group.
“We are aware of a small group of protestors both from Israel and France, some affiliated with Betar Worldwide who raised a voice of moral consciousness against the evil Jew hating band Kneecap,” Daniel Levy, spokesman for Betar worldwide, said in an emailed statement.
“This band kneecap shouldn’t be receiving visas to travel the world and incite violence against Jewish people and the Jewish state,” Levy added.
The U.S. State Department had previously declined to answer questions about Kneecap’s visa status. But it had canceled the work visas of a different British group, Bob Vylan, that chanted “Death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury music festival in June.
Kneecap’s Sunday performance came after a day after a different Irish band, the Mary Wallopers, had their microphones silenced after staging a pro-Palestinian protest at a British music festival.
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