Simon Wiesenthal Center slams Glastonbury and BBC for weak response to Bob Vylan’s “death to the IDF” chant, calling it dangerous incitement and hate speech.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has publicly rebuked both Glastonbury Festival and the BBC for what it calls an unacceptably muted response to punk duo Bob Vylan’s incendiary on-stage chants of “death to the IDF” and “free Palestine.”
The chants erupted during the duo’s set at this year’s Glastonbury—one of the world’s largest and most celebrated music festivals—and were carried live to millions by the BBC.
Jim Berk, CEO of the Los Angeles–based Jewish human-rights organization, characterized the performance as “sickening, dangerous and chillingly reminiscent of a modern-day Nazi rally.”
He argued that the deliberate calls for violence against the Israel Defense Forces went beyond political speech and amounted to “public incitement.”
“By broadcasting those slogans live, without interruption, the BBC gave hate a stage, a microphone, and the stamp of legitimacy of one of Britain’s most respected institutions,” Berk said.
Glastonbury organizers issued a brief statement condemning the chants—saying they “very much crossed a line” and that “there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”
The BBC, meanwhile, described the set as “deeply offensive” and confirmed it would not be made available on demand. But to Berk, these responses are far too weak.
He denounced Glastonbury’s “bland” wording and the BBC’s refusal to act in real time, calling such half-measures “cowardice” and “complicity.”
Berk placed the incident in the sobering context of Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel’s Nova music festival, which left 378 people dead and 251 hostages taken.
He called the chants “deeply re-traumatizing and terrifying” for anyone still grappling with that tragedy.
This is a moment of reckoning,” he said, urging festival organizers and broadcasters to adopt strict safeguards—pausing performances that veer into hate speech, using broadcast delays, and deploying a “kill switch” to cut off hateful content instantly.
“Silence is not neutrality,” Berk warned. “It’s a green light for bigotry.” He stressed that the promise of “never again” cannot remain an empty slogan; it demands real, concrete action whenever hate seeks a public platform—even on the world’s biggest stages.
