{"id":4355,"date":"2025-08-09T00:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T00:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/kneecap-norway-israel-oslo-festival-1236040087\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T00:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T00:14:16","slug":"kneecap-norway-israel-oslo-festival-1236040087","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/kneecap-norway-israel-oslo-festival-1236040087\/","title":{"rendered":"Kneecap Blasts Norwegian Government at Oslo Festival, Accusing It of Funding \u2018Genocide\u2019 Against\u00a0Palestinians"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tIrish rap group Kneecap \u2013 which has drawn a storm of criticism, support, attention and legal action over the past half-year \u2013 continued to speak out about the war in Gaza during an afternoon set at the \u00d8yafestivalen in Oslo, Norway, on Friday (Aug. 8).<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tKneecap Banned From Hungary for Posing \u2018National Security\u00a0Threat\u2019\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tRight before the trio of Mo Chara, M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap and DJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed took the stage, an English-language white-text-on-black-background message played on a video screen, accusing the Norwegian government of \u201cenabling\u201d the \u201cgenocide\u201d against the Palestinian people via investments held in the county\u2019s sovereign wealth fund (referenced as \u201coil pension fund\u201d in the message). \u201cOver 80,000 people have been murdered by Israel in 21 months,\u201d the band\u2019s message continued. \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d The message was greeted readily by a cheering audience. Most estimates (including those from health officials in the area) place the Palestinian death toll at more than 60,000. That number does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas militants. An estimated 18,500 of those killed were children.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile conflict between Israel and Palestinian territory has been ongoing for decades, the conflict escalated on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants entered Israel and killed 1,200 people, more than 800 of whom were civilians, and took 251 hostages, at least 40 of whom have been killed<\/a>; around 50 hostages, both dead and alive, remain unreleased. Israel\u2019s ensuing invasion of Gaza has killed an estimated<\/a> 60,000 and led to an ongoing humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced and facing starvation. Gaza health authorities have reported that almost 200 people have died of hunger since the conflict began and the United Nations has estimated<\/a> that some 1300 were killed while seeking food, though Israel has frequently disputed the UN\u2019s figures. Israel\u2019s security cabinet recently approved a plan to take complete control of Gaza City and forcibly relocate at least 600,000 Palestinians, a move decried by many world leaders.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Norwegian government\u2019s connection to the war in Gaza is complicated. While Norway has broken with the United States and Israel by recognizing Palestine as a state, the Government Pension Fund of Norway \u2013 which invests surplus revenues from the country\u2019s petroleum industry and has more than $1.9 trillion in assets \u2013 is under scrutiny after a recent piece by Aftenposten<\/a><\/em>, Norway\u2019s largest printed newspaper, reported that the sovereign wealth fund invested<\/a> around $15.2 million in Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd., a jet engines parts manufacturer supplying the Israeli military, between 2023-2024. While Norway\u2019s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg has ruled out<\/a> wholesale divestment of Israeli companies, the newspaper\u2019s revelation spurred the government to launch a review of the sovereign wealth portfolio to ensure that it was not investing in Israeli companies contributing to the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\n\tHalfway through the Belfast group\u2019s hour-long performance, they offered up more detailed thoughts on Norway\u2019s purported connection to the conflict. \u201cI don\u2019t have to lecture you people,\u201d said Kneecap\u2019s Mo Chara, wearing a keffiyeh. \u201cI can understand there\u2019s people here like, \u2018All right, we get it, I\u2019m sick of yous going on.\u2019 I wish I didn\u2019t have to talk about this, I wish I didn\u2019t have to get on stage every gig and talk about this. The fact is, as long as we\u2019re on stage and as long as nothing is changing, Kneecap will always use this platform and this stage to call out the genocide and the war criminals. I don\u2019t need to lecture you people when your oil fund is being used to fund the genocide.\u201d The majority of Kneecap\u2019s massive crowd greeted his speech with cheers and applause; many waved Palestinian flags as he spoke. The Israeli government has flatly denied committing genocide against Palestinians, and the term remains hotly debated. Some say those who accuse Israel of genocide are motivated by antisemitism, though two Israel-based human rights organizations recently<\/a> began adopting the word with regards to the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

\n\tMo Chara gave a \u201cquick shout-out\u201d to \u00d8yafestivalen for \u201cstanding by Kneecap\u201d despite calls for its removal from the lineup, but added that he thinks \u201cit\u2019s a disgrace and a shame that KKR\u201d \u2013 a global investment firm that owns Superstruct Entertainment, which runs \u00d8yafestivalen, among many other international music festivals \u2013 \u201cis behind all these festivals. No company investing in Israel while they commit war crimes should be involved in and taking part in music festivals,\u201d he concluded, with the crowd voicing its agreement.<\/p>\n

\n\tCriticism of KKR wasn\u2019t limited to Kneecap\u2019s set. Outside the festival entrance on Friday, a small but vocal group of protestors gathered to urge people to boycott \u00d8yafestivalen over KKR. At a different stage, more than an hour later Kneecap wrapped, Irish rockers D.C. Fontaines flashed an onscreen message of \u201cFree Palestine,\u201d which was also greeted enthusiastically by the crowd.<\/p>\n

\n\tMo Chara is currently facing a terrorism charge<\/a> from the British government over purportedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in November 2024, where the group allegedly said \u201cup Hezbollah, up Hamas.\u201d Since then, the punk-leaning rap group released a statement<\/a> declaring \u201cwe do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah\u201d and described video footage as \u201cdeliberately taken out of context.\u201d Mo Chara alluded to the charges during the show, saying, \u201cwe love the English people, it\u2019s the English government we don\u2019t like.\u201d Not long after Kneecap first hit the \u00d8yafestivalen stage, they urged the audience to give them more of a response: \u201cFor f\u2014k sake, we\u2019re up in court on terrorism charges \u2013 give me a bit of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn July, Kneecap were banned<\/a> from performing in Hungary over what a Hungarian politician described as \u201cantisemitism and glorifying terror,\u201d calling them a \u201cnational security threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe authoritarian government of Viktor Orban say we \u2018pose a national security threat,\u2019\u201d the group wrote in a statement after the ban. \u201cThere is no legal basis for his actions, no member of Kneecap has ever been convicted of any crime in any country. We stand against all hate crimes and Kneecap champions love and solidarity as well as calling out injustices where we see it\u2026. It\u2019s clear this is political distraction and a further attempt to silence those who call out genocide against the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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