European venues are facing pressure to ditch Kneecap ahead of a planned continental tour.
The Irish rappers are being investigated by a Metropolitan Police anti-terror unit over on-stage shouts of “up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” and “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
These comments have led to widespread calls for Glastonbury Festival organisers to remove the group from the lineup, where they are scheduled to perform.
The controversy has extended to Europe, where prominent Jewish groups are encouraging venues to boycott the band.
Kneecap are set to play at a string of European events including the Netherlands, Spain, and France, which has the largest Jewish community outside of Israel and the US.
But the European Jewish Congress (EJC), which represents communities in 37 states, has called for the band’s upcoming gigs to be cancelled.
Raya Kalenova, the EJC executive vice-president, said: “Freedom of expression has limits and those freedoms cannot include the right to support violence and terrorism.
“We call on concert venues to cancel these events.”
Kneecap’s tour plans also include dates in Greece, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, where they are billed to play the Rock for People festival.
It is understood that event organisers have been contacted with requests to pull the Kneecap gig.
The Federation of the Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic has echoed calls for the band to be shunned.
They said: “We fully share the concerns about the Northern Irish band Kneecap and we find their political activism worrying and alarming.
“In our view, any legitimising of extremism and supporting terrorism in the public space is unacceptable. We would like to see the band banned from their tour.”
