Joseph Brean
National Post, July 1, 2025
“The British broadcast regulator Ofcom said the BBC “has questions to answer” and that it has been urgently investigating what procedures were in place to ensure the BBC complied with its own editorial guidelines.”
When Pascal Robinson-Foster, 34, a rapper from Ipswich, U.K., who goes by “Bobby Vylan” came on stage Saturday afternoon at Britain’s Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in front of a Palestine flag, there was already tension in the festival’s executive offices.
What followed, then, was predictable if not specifically expected. Avon and Somerset Police have announced a criminal investigation under hate crime law into Bob Vylan’s performance, which is classed as a “public order incident.”
“Free! Free!” Vylan chanted into the mic, to which an audible portion of the crowd replied “Palestine!”
“All right, but have you heard this one though? Death Death to the IDF,” he said.
IDF is the Israel Defense Forces. He repeated it five times, backed similarly by some of the audience, then said, “hell yeah, from the river to the sea, Palestine must be, will be, inshallah, it will be free.”
He also spoke to the audience about working for “f—ing Zionists” at his record label.
Bob Vylan were followed in their performance by Kneecap, but not on the BBC live feed.
Festival organizers said they were “appalled,” and that Bob Vylan’s behaviour went against its mission of “hope, unity, peace and love.”
BBC staff have reported feeling ashamed at how long this diatribe was allowed to continue in the live stream. The BBC itself said in a statement Sunday: “The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen. The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence. The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves.” The segment has been removed from streaming services, and the BBC has launched a review……SOURCE