Massive Attack have announced an alliance for musicians who are facing “intimidations from within” the music industry over their support of Palestine and Gaza. The band shared a statement on Instagram saying they hope help protect other artists from the “organized censorship” many have experienced after speaking out.
“The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description,” the band wrote. “We write as artists who’ve chose to use our public platforms to speak out agains the genocide occurring there & the role of the UK Government in facilitating it. Because of our expressions of conscience, we’ve been subject to various intimidations from within our industry (live & recorded) & legally via organized bodies such as UK Lawyers For Israel; whose range of activities has now finally been exposed in a new documentary film projected last night by the Led By Donkeys collective.”
They continued, “Having withstood these campaigns of attempted censorship, we won’t standby & allow other artists – particularly those at earlier stages of their careers or in other positions of professional vulnerability – to be threatened into silence or career cancellation. In this spirit, we encourage artists who’ve been placed in this position, or those who now wish to use their platforms to talk about Palestine, but are concerted about industrial or legal repercussions to contact us.”
The statement concluded with a list of demands, including including the “immediate, unfettered access to Gaza for recognized international aid agencies without military threat” and “the end of the atrocious targeting of medical & aid workers.”
In a statement to the Guardian, Massive Attack explained they wanted to help artists use their voices. “This collective action is really about offering some kind of solidarity to those artists who are living day after day in a screen-time genocide, but are worried about using their platforms to express their horror at that because of the level of censorship within their industry or from highly organized external legal bodies, terrifying them and their management teams with aggressive legal actions,” the band said. “The intention is clear and obvious: to silence them.”
Several others artists have put their support behind the initiative already. Kneecap, Fontaines D.C., Brian Eno, and Garbage all shared the statement on social media. “End threats and censorship against artists who speak out against the genocide in Palestine,” Kneecap wrote. “Speak out. Stand up. We are the majority.”
Numerous artists have been penalized for voicing their political opinions on stage in recent months. Earlier this year, Kneecap’s Mo Chara – real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – was charged with a terror offense after he allegedly displayed a Hezbollah flag onstage during a show in London late last year. The band was later removed from the Scottish festival TRNSMT due to police safety concerns, and their set at Glastonbury was not part of the BBC’s live broadcast.
Bob Vylan stirred up controversy for chanting “Death, death to the IDF” during their own performance at Glastonbury and was subsequently dropped by their booking agency and removed from several concert lineups. Frontman Bobby Vylan addressed the situation at a concert in London earlier this month. “We just want to see the liberation of the Palestinian people,” he said. “That’s it. I don’t think it’s too crazy a thing to ask. I don’t think it’s a violent thing to ask, right? The liberation of the Palestinian people from a tyrannical fucking oppressor. That’s all we want. Each and every single time, they will not fucking silence us.”