Any why Rob Vylan’s Glastonbury chant was condemned by power – but praised by the people
WHEN Bob Vylan shouted “Death to the IDF” on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, it triggered the expected fury from the powers that be. The BBC have pulled the performance from Iplayer. Politicians from across the spectrum condemned it as hate speech. Even the festival itself distanced from the moment. But out in the digital world – on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram – something else happened.
The chant was cheered.
Clips were shared by millions. Comment sections brimmed with “finally someone said it.” The establishment recoiled in horror. The public – or at least a large and vocal part of it – nodded in grim agreement.
This divide isn’t just about one angry lyric. It’s about who has the moral high ground, and who is perceived to have lost it. Increasingly, it’s not Israel.
In the aftermath of October 7, when Hamas carried out atrocities inside Israel, global sympathy rightly flowed towards the victims. But that sympathy has not been sustained. What followed – months of relentless airstrikes, mass displacement, starvation, and systematic destruction in Gaza – has shattered any notion that Israel’s response was measured or proportionate.
Now, even the UN and major human rights groups are warning that the destruction may meet the threshold for genocide. And while officials mince their words, ordinary people don’t. They’ve seen the videos: children shot dead while reaching for flour, bodies riddled with bullets near aid trucks, ambulances bombed, mass graves discovered near hospitals. No talking point about Hamas tunnels or precision airstrikes can obscure those truths.
This is not just a war. It is a campaign of erasure – of families, of homes, of an entire people’s hope for the future. When journalists speak of 37,000 dead and counting, it’s not abstract. It’s the face of a child whose only crime was being born in Gaza.
In that context, Bob Vylan’s words – crass though they were – reflected a deep and growing anger. Not hatred of Jews. Not blind rage. But fury at a military force that has turned aid lines into kill zones. At a global order that funds it. And at a media and political class that, for too long, looked the other way.
Yes, chanting “Death to the IDF” is incendiary. It invites scrutiny, and perhaps rightly so. But it did not erupt in a vacuum. It came from a world watching a horror unfold in real time – and hearing nothing but silence from those in charge.
In war, the victors write the history. But in this war, it seems the people are writing their own narrative. Israel may still hold the military upper hand. But on the battlefield of hearts and minds, it is already losing
