Kneecap at Belfast Vital: UUP man vows to try and stop gig on council land after 'Hamas and Hezbollah' controversy
Opposition to a major upcoming Kneecap gig on public land in Belfast continues to grow, as a veteran UUP politician has vowed to try and stop it.
Jim Rodgers was reacting to this week's controversy surrounding the band, which has long flirted with the language and imagery of hardcore republicanism.
In the past seven days though the focus has turned to their anti-Israel stance after they put up the message "f**k Israel" on stage at a massive gig at Coachella, California.
It has also emerged that during a Kneecap gig in London last year, rapper Mo Chara draped himself the assault rifle flag of Hezbollah, and declared "tiocfaidh ar la, up Hamas, up Hezbollah".
Hamas and Hezbollah are both proscribed as terrorist organisations, and The Met's counter-terror officers are now looking into the matter.
The group is due to play the enormous annual Belfast Vital festival at the council-owned Boucher Playing Fields in south Belfast on August 29, in support of Dublin band Fontaines DC.
The tickets sold out within a few hours of going on sale today.
There is a general outdoor entertainment licence in place for the wider site. Any review of the general licence for the site is the responsibility of the Licensing Committee.
When it comes to Belfast Vital event specifically, permission for it was granted by the People and Communities Committee last year. Any review of permission for that event falls to that committee.
The council told the News Letter: “Use of the venue for these events is managed via a legal agreement between the council and the promoter. Events programming remains a matter for the organisers."
Jim Rodgers, chairman of the Licensing Committee, said: "As far as I'm concerned, permission should not be granted for an event such as this. That's the last thing we need.
"In regards to all our facilities, whether they're indoor or outdoor, there's rules and regulations.
"I'll be advocating through the council that this needs to be stopped forthwith.
"In the past, and I'm on the council over 32 years, there's been a few organisations have claimed they want to use a certain facility or such-and-such, then we've been tipped off and we immediately have taken action to stop it.
"As far as I'm concerned this would not be in the best interests of the citizens of Belfast, and we have the right as city fathers, as councillors, to stop this immediately."
His objections are added to those of the DUP and TUV, which had questioned the use of the site for the gig earlier in the week.
Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert has said the group will not comment to the News Letter.
"There’s journalism and then there’s the News Letter Belfast. Nobody from Kneecap will be providing comment to your ‘paper’, ever. Free Palestine!" he said.
Previous approaches have met with a similar response.
However, Mo Chara has been quoted by the magazine Rolling Stone as saying: “We believe we have an obligation to use our platform when we can to raise the issue of Palestine, and it was important for us to speak out at Coachella as the USA is the main funder and supplier of weapons to Israel as they commit genocide in Gaza.
“As I said from the stage, ‘The US government could stop the genocide tomorrow.’”