UK charged Kneecap's Mo Chara with ‘terrorism’ on the same day it refused to stop arming Israel's genocide.
Palestinian solidarity criminalised, Israeli war crimes subsidised.
‘Instead of defending innocent people or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.’ - Kneecap.
Good day, spectators,
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Kneecap—the Irish-language rap trio who’ve spent their career spitting in the eye of the remnants of the British Empire—had provoked more outrage from Westminster for waving a Palestinian flag at Coachella than Israel has for turning Gaza into a mass grave.
Now, the British state has escalated from classic pearl-clutching to outright political persecution.
Mo Chara the terrorist.
Today, ‘Mo Chara’ (whose real name is Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh) of Kneecap was charged under terrorism legislation for holding a Hezbollah flag that was thrown on stage at a gig a year ago.
Not for violence. Not for incitement. For holding a piece of fabric in a country where the UK itself only proscribed Hezbollah’s political wing in 2019 to appease Israel and the US. The timing is instructive, to say the least.
On the exact same day these charges were announced, the UK government did two remarkable things. First, it condemned Israel’s ‘monstrous’ assault on Rafah in language so strong it almost sounded sincere. Second, it confirmed it would not stop sending weapons to Israel, ensuring the very bombardment it claimed to oppose would continue. This is the kind of Orwellian doublespeak we’ve come to expect: performative outrage paired with material complicity. Kneecap’s real crime isn’t holding a flag, it’s that they are exposing this hypocrisy on a global stage.
They’re having a meltdown.
the real crime is resisting evil.
The prosecution is a transparent attempt to silence dissent at the worst possible moment for the British state. Kneecap isn’t just another band; they’re Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning artists selling out shows worldwide, reviving the Irish language not as a dusty museum piece but as a weapon against empire, beloved all over for what they do and how they do it. Now, just as their platform was reaching its peak, the UK has dug up a year-old incident to slap Mo Chara with charges. Be under no illusion, if he’s found guilty, they’ll essentially be barring him from touring across the West.
This is what they want, silence on genocide.
The message to the public is crystal clear: you can engage in a little bit of dissent, but only when it’s toothless. Anything else will be shot down.
Meanwhile, the UK’s own role in Gaza’s destruction grows more execrable by the day. While Foreign Secretary David Lammy theatrically suspends trade talks with Israel over its ‘repellent extremism,’ British arms exports continue unabated. F-35 fighter jet parts, essential tools in Israel’s killing, still flow from UK factories to Israeli warplanes through a ‘global spares pool’ loophole. Legal challenges accusing the UK of complicity in war crimes are met with shrugs in court.
This is the real double standard. When Israel’s finance minister calls to ‘purify Gaza,’ Britain sanctions a few settlers as a transparent fig leaf. When students protest genocide, they’re met with riot police. But when Kneecap says ‘Free Palestine,’ the full weight of anti-terror laws comes crashing down. The difference? Kneecap’s dissent works. Their art reaches audiences Westminster can’t control, their lyrics mock the powerful, and their solidarity with Palestine is unignorable.
The prosecution of Mo Chara isn’t about security at all but about fear. Fear of voices that refuse to play along with the fantasy that Britain is a neutral observer rather than an active participant in genocide. Fear of artists who remind the world that the same empire that once starved Ireland now arms the starvation of Gaza. And fear, above all, of the truth: that the real terrorists aren’t the ones holding flags, but the ones dropping bombs.
the PSNI’s nightmare.
From an Irish perspective, this prosecution isn’t just hypocritical. It’s a danger and a ticking time bomb for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Every single July, loyalist parades march through the streets waving flags of proscribed terrorist groups like the UVF and UDA, often with tacit police acquiescence.
The PSNI has long turned a blind eye to these displays, citing ‘community sensitivities’ and the fragile peace process. But now, after charging Mo Chara for a Hezbollah flag at a gig, how can they possibly justify their inaction when UVF banners fly over Drumcree or the Shankill this summer? The double standard is glaring, and it won’t go unnoticed by the Irish. By weaponising terror laws against Kneecap, the British state isn’t just showing us its bias, it’s actively handing loyalists a live grenade of legitimacy to throw back in the PSNI’s face.
The policing chaos this will unleash is entirely self-inflicted 🤷♂️
Anyway, what do you think, folks? Comment below, I love the discussion,
(And as always, thanks for reading, make sure to subscribe and do please give this post a ❤️ and restack below too.)
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Read more from the spectacle:
British hypocrisy at its best!
Lowkey is great on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5qr4EFeFKw
Spot on as per usual deaglan.This is the dying British Empire doing dying British Empire things