ADVERTISEMENT Celebrated British trip hop collective Massive Attack have announced an alliance of musicians speaking out over Gaza against “intimidations from within” the music industry.
Massive Attack took to social media last night to share a statement announcing the “movement” – a union of musicians who have spoken out over the Israel-Palestine war and have faced attempts of censorship.
The statement reads: “The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description. We write as artists who’ve chose to use our public platforms to speak out against 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 organised 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.”
This makes reference to Led By Donkeys, the UK political campaign group that was formed in 2018 as an anti-Brexit group. They premiered a new documentary last night about UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI) and how they attempted to silence Bob Vylan following their controversial Glastonbury performance last month. UKLFI have claimed responsibility for getting Bob Vylan taken off several festival line-ups in the UK, as well as actions against Kneecap.
Later in the statement released by Massive Attack, the band say: “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 post ends with a list of collective demands that Massive Attack and supporting artists have put together: “Immediate, unfettered access to Gaza for recognised international aid agencies without military threat”; “the end of the atrocious targeting of medical & aid workers”; “an end to to UK arm sales/licenses to Israel”; “an immediate & permanent ceasefire”; “a free Palestine”.
Massive Attack said of the alliance in a statement to the Guardian: “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 organised external legal bodies, terrifying them and their management teams with aggressive legal actions. The intention is clear and obvious: to silence them.”
Artists who have already expressed their support for the alliance include Kneecap, Fontaines D.C. and Brian Eno.
Kneecap added in their own post: “End threats and censorship against artists who speak out against the genocide in Palestine. Speak out. Stand up. We are the majority.”
In April, Massive Attack issued a statement supporting Kneecap, following the news that the Irish rap trio were under investigation by counter-terrorism police in the UK.
The band were also joined by Dua Lipa, actor Benedict Cumberbatch and ex-footballer and present Gary Lineker – among other high-profile names – in penning a letter to urge Prime Minister Keir Starmer to “end UK complicity” in Gaza.
The letter demanded all UK arms sales to Israel to be immediately suspended and that the government commit to seeking a ceasefire for “the children of Gaza”.
Previously, Massive Attack teamed up with Fontaines D.C. and Young Fathers on a 2023 Gaza benefit single, with 100 per cent of the profits from the single donated to the charity Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders to help their emergency operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
