The annual Coachella festival, which attracts the biggest names in the music industry along with celebrities attending, became a platform for several bands to voice anti-Israel sentiments.

Sharon Osbourne, wife of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, refused to remain silent about this disturbing trend. In a lengthy social media post, Osbourne criticized the festival organizers for permitting inflammatory statements to be broadcast from one of the world's most prominent stages.

Osbourne wrote, "Coachella 2025 will be remembered as a festival that compromised its moral and spiritual integrity. Goldenvoice, the festival organizer, facilitated this by allowing artists to use the Coachella stage as a platform for political expression." She emphasized that "music should serve as a refuge and its purpose is to unite people. It is not a place to promote terrorist organizations or spread hatred."

Osbourne specifically addressed the Irish band Kneecap, which during its festival performance claimed Israel "is committing genocide" and called for the liberation of Palestine.

"Kneecap, an Irish rap group, took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements. Their actions included projections of anti-Israel messages and hate speech, and this band openly support terrorist organizations," Osbourne stated. She noted that allowing the band to perform again after witnessing their first weekend performance "suggests support of their rhetoric and a lack of due diligence."

Osbourne mentioned that "Scooter Braun, who has been involved in organizing the Nova Music Festival exhibit – a tribute to the victims of the October 7th attacks in Israel – has defended Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett as he attended the Nova Exhibit."

She continued, "If Tollett visited the Nova exhibit, he would have seen the portraits of every person that was killed that day and heard some of their voices on cell phone recordings, sent home to their loved ones. It is difficult to comprehend how if somebody saw this exhibit firsthand that they could book a band on their festival that is in support of what was done that day and supports the group responsible for this mass murder."

Osbourne concluded by urging everyone to join her "in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap's work visa."

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Israelis and Jews around the world will forever be haunted by what happened at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, when Hamas infiltrated Israel, rampaged through the festival, massacred over 360 concertgoers, and brutally took another 44 hostages. So many innocent, peaceful music lovers had their lives stolen, and the survivors will never be the same.

To then weaponize a music festival to display hateful imagery or symbolism targeting the Jewish state, especially at an event like Coachella, which is supposed to be about peace and unity, is deeply disturbing.

During their debut at Coachella in Los Angeles, the anti-Israel Irish band KNEECAP used their stage to project hateful, anti-Israel propaganda. They flashed the words "F**k Israel, Free Palestine" across the screen and led chants of "Free Palestine" before thousands of cheering concertgoers. The propaganda continued with false accusations of genocide and war crimes, the same lies routinely spread by those who support terrorism against Israel.

This should come as no surprise from KNEECAP, who have a well-documented history of supporting terror groups like Hezbollah during their shows. Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, has been a US-designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997 and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. On February 23, 2025, KNEECAP posted a photo of one of its members reading "Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah." Nasrallah was Hezbollah's longtime group leader and was killed by an Israeli airstrike in September 2024. Expressing support for him is equivalent to supporting Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 terror attacks. In November 2024, KNEECAP waved a Hezbollah flag onstage during a concert in London. The band also expressed support for Hamas on October 7, even as Israel was still counting the bodies of its dead, and again on the one-year anniversary of the massacre.

So it's no surprise that KNEECAP turned their Coachella set into a Hamas fan club. What's truly disturbing, though, is how effortlessly the crowd followed along. I'm not someone who gets offended by the sight of a Palestinian flag, nor do I take issue with people expressing genuine sympathy for the Palestinian people. We're all human, after all. But the messages delivered by KNEECAP had nothing to do with peace or human rights; they were hateful, dehumanizing attacks on Israelis. The band said nothing about the hostages, nothing about the victims, and nothing about reconciliation. They used their platform to legitimize terrorism under the guise of activism.

Several organizations, fully aware of KNEECAP's record, had warned Coachella that this would happen. The entertainment nonprofit Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) repeatedly alerted the festival's organizers – AEG and Goldenvoice – about the band's hateful track record, but the organizers ignored their warnings.

Now, Coachella has rightly come under serious fire for platforming KNEECAP, especially after CCFP revealed that they provided the organizers with clear, documented warnings about the band's open support for designated terrorist organizations. American-Jewish music executive Scooter Braun and the Tribe of Nova community issued statements in support of Coachella founder Paul Tollett, who visited the Nova exhibition and met with survivors and families of hostages. While Tollett deserves credit for engaging with the Jewish community, that does not absolve the festival of responsibility.

Coachella would never platform a neo-Nazi band or supporters of the KKK – so why would they knowingly give the stage to a group that openly supports jihadist terror? Platforming artists who promote or sympathize with terrorism undermines the core values of art, music, and unity that Coachella claims to stand for. There is a clear difference between free expression and dangerous endorsement, and Coachella crossed that line.

The festival's organizers, Goldenvoice and AEG, have deeply harmed the Jewish community and should publicly apologize for their indiscretion. At a time when Jewish communities around the world are still reeling from the trauma of October 7, the decision to give a platform to a band that glorifies terror is not just tone-deaf – it is morally indefensible.

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Irish hip-hop band KNEECAP delivered anti-Israel propaganda at the Coachella Festival in California in front of a massive crowd of thousands. The hip-hop group performed at Coachella last weekend, and right from the start, a message was projected on the screen in large illuminated letters stating, "F*** Israel, Free Palestine." Additional messages followed on the screen, including "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people" then adding "Enabled by the US government, which arms and funds Israel despite their war crimes."

Afterward, the band's vocalist, Mo Chara, told the audience, "Not long ago, the Irish people were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the f***ing skies with nowhere to go."

Mo chara speaking to thousands of Americans at coachella.

The young people of America don't support genocide, get out on the streets and show this to that cunt Trump. pic.twitter.com/fExyAn7GA6

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 19, 2025

The band's performance sparked outrage on social media due to the use of a music festival platform to promote one-sided propaganda. "Using a music festival to celebrate the terrorists who massacred thousands at a music festival. I wish you could make this shit up," a user wrote on X, while another one added, "Hypocrisy at its peak: Coachella's 'Free Palestine' chants from scantily clad, drug-fueled LGBTQ youth, flaunting freedoms they'd be brutally executed for in Palestine. Virtue signaling at its most shameless." Some users photoshopped one of the anti-Israel messages from the beginning of the show into "F*** Hamas, Free Hostages."

KNEECAP is known as a band that regularly expresses its political views. They are recognized for their anti-British sentiments and advocacy for complete Irish independence. In the past, they have repeatedly expressed their disdain for Israel. On the day of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's funeral, one of the band members was photographed reading a book compiling "Nasrallah's sayings."

Additionally, at previous performances, they have raised Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags and vilified Israel. KNEECAP is a hip-hop trio from Belfast, Northern Ireland, known for their strong political positions supporting the Irish Republican movement, which advocates for Irish unification and ending British involvement in its governance, as well as supporting Palestinians. In 2020, they committed to boycotting Israel.

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"Imagine going to a music festival and not coming home." This chilling message, clearly referencing the Nova festival massacre, appears on a billboard along the road leading to the Coachella festival held this past weekend in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert, California. The second half of the festival will take place next weekend.

Behind the billboard stands JewBelong – a pro-Jewish advocacy organization fighting antisemitism through unconventional methods, often employing creative and humorous approaches on social media and in physical spaces.

The organization's Facebook post revealing the billboard has sparked particularly lively discussions over the past two days, garnering tens of thousands of comments and shares as of today. A significant portion of the responses are supportive, with comments such as "Awesome - a great learning lesson for all who mistakenly think Hamas & Palestine are a good thing to support" and "My daughter is there and a Jewish guy gave her a bracelet that said, Am Yisrael Chai. She cried after receiving it."

However, many comments have emerged as pro-Palestinian propaganda "justifying" the Nova massacre, with messages like "Imagine someone bulldozes your house and you can never go home"; "Imagine going to buy a loaf of bread and being bombed"; and "Is Coachella held right outside a concentration camp like Nova was?" Additionally, numerous other comments call for the release of the hostages, with messages such as "I was hoping for Passover they will Let my people go, but still nothing."

Coachella stands as one of the largest and most prestigious music and art festivals in the US, attracting top-tier stars every year. Among the artists who performed and will perform on the desert stages of the current festival are Travis Scott, Lady Gaga, Missy Elliott, Charli XCX and Post Malone, as well as the band Green Day, which in a controversial move on Saturday changed the lyrics of one of their hits, "Jesus of Suburbia," to deliver a pro-Palestinian message.

The vocalist Billy Joe Armstrong took a definitive stance during the performance when he sang, "Runnin' away from pain like the kids from Palestine," instantly alienating countless Israeli fans.

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