British police say Mo Chara displayed a flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah at a live performance.
A member of the Irish rap band Kneecap has been charged with a “terrorism” offence in the UK for waving a flag of the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah at a live performance in November 2024 in London.
Liam O’Hanna, whose stage title is Mo Chara, is because of seem at Westminster Magistrates’ Court docket in London on June 18, charged below the Terrorism Act, British police mentioned on Wednesday.
Kneecap has been vocal in its help for the Palestinian trigger for the reason that October 7, 2023-led Hamas assaults and Israel’s devastating warfare on Gaza, equating the struggles of the Irish below British colonial rule to that of Palestinians dwelling below Israeli occupation and siege.
Professional-Palestinian chants are a daily fixture of their gigs. The band says they’ve been targets of a smear marketing campaign for calling out Israel’s genocidal warfare.
KNEECAP STATEMENT:
Since our statements at Coachella — exposing the continued genocide towards the Palestinian folks — now we have confronted a coordinated smear marketing campaign.
For over a yr, now we have used our exhibits to name out the British and Irish governments’ complicity in warfare crimes.… pic.twitter.com/mBojb5QBOP
— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 25, 2025
The Belfast trio can be well-known for its political and satirical lyrics and use of symbolism related to the Irish Republican motion, which seeks to unite Northern Eire, presently a part of the UK, with the Republic of Eire.
Greater than 3,600 folks had been killed throughout three many years of violence in Northern Eire throughout “The Troubles” involving the Irish Republican Military (IRA), pro-British Loyalist militias and the UK safety forces.
Kneecap takes its title from a brutal punishment, which concerned being shot within the kneecaps, that was meted out by paramilitary teams to informers and drug sellers.
The band has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Eire, the place the standing of the language stays a contested political challenge in a society nonetheless break up between Protestant British Unionists and Catholic Irish Nationalist communities.
It has additionally been criticised for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references.
Kneecap got here below intense scrutiny and criticism final month throughout their efficiency on the music pageant Coachella in California once they projected the phrases “F*** Israel. Free Palestine.” on stage.
“The Irish not so way back had been persecuted by the Brits, however we had been by no means bombed from the f****** skies with nowhere to go! The Palestinians have nowhere to go – it’s their f****** house they usually’re bombing them from the sky. Should you’re not calling it a genocide what the f*** are you calling it?” learn the phrases projected by Mo Chara.
Kneecap got here below renewed scrutiny at the beginning of this month when UK intelligence mentioned they’d examine feedback made by the rap group about UK and Center East politics.
They had been reported to police over footage from a 2024 live performance wherein a band member appeared to say: “The one good Tory is a lifeless Tory. Kill your native MP.” Footage from one other live performance, in 2023, seems to point out a member of the trio shouting “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” – the UK considers each to be “terrorist” organisations.
In response, Kneecap mentioned it had “by no means supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” and accused “institution figures” of taking feedback out of context to “manufacture ethical hysteria” due to the band’s criticism of Israel’s assaults on Palestinians in Gaza.
A number of Kneecap gigs have been cancelled on account of the controversy, and a few British lawmakers have known as on organisers of June’s Glastonbury Competition to scrap a deliberate efficiency by the group.
