Irish rapper indicted for displaying Hezbollah flag

The hip hop band gained notoriety in April after shouting and projecting messages such as “F*** Israel, free Palestine” at an American music festival.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

London police charged Liam O’Hanna of Irish hip hop band Kneecap with a terrorism offense due to a performance in November when he allegedly displayed a Hezbollah flag.

While singing onstage in the British capital, O’Hanna, who goes by the stage name of Mo Chara, displayed the Lebanese terrorist group’s flag “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation, namely Hezbollah,” the police said in a statement.

O’Hanna allegedly also shouted, “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!”

These acts would contravene Britain’s Terrorism Act, which has been on the books for 25 years.

The authorities explained the delay in the arrest, saying, “Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on Tuesday, April 22, of an online video from the event.”

“An investigation was carried out, which led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorizing the above charge,” the statement continued.

Kneecap is a trio from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and their music is known for its satirical and politically charged content.

The group has expressed virulently anti-Israel sentiments several times since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists led an invasion of the Jewish state, massacring 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back into the Gaza Strip, sparking the ongoing war in the coastal enclave.

It has shown support for Hezbollah before this latest incident, displaying its flag onstage during a show just one month into the war and leading the audience in chanting, “Ooh, ah, Hezbollah.”

Starting on October 8, Hezbollah fired thousands of missiles and drones over the northern border in support of its Gazan colleagues over the course of a full year before the IDF stopped them with decisive military action and forced a ceasefire.

Most recently, at the Coachella music festival in California in April, Kneecap caused an uproar after leading the audience in chanting “Free Palestine” and projecting anti-Israel and anti-American slogans during their performance.

One message read, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. F–k Israel. Free Palestine.”

While some, especially in the music community, defended the right to openly express opinions, the band has seen several of their concerts cancelled since then, both in the UK and in Germany.

UK TV show personality Sharon Osbourne, who is married to metal legend Ozzy Osbourne and is Jewish, has called for their visas to the United States to be cancelled to prevent them from going on an upcoming, almost sold-out tour.

Kneecap put out a statement accusing “establishment figures desperate to silence us” of taking “a handful of words from months or years ago” out of context in order to smear the band.

It also condemned the terrorist organizations, saying in part, “Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah. We condemn all attacks on civilians, always.”

Yet just one day after the Hamas slaughter, Kneecap posted an image of themselves holding a Palestinian flag with a clenched fist emoji and the statement, “Solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.”