KNEECAP's manager: "Children are starving to death, and we're spending six or seven days talking about KNEECAP"

KNEECAP's manager Daniel Lambert has said the band "stand on the right side of history" amid controversy about their outspoken stance on Palestine.

"Children are starving to death, and we're spending six or seven days talking about KNEECAP," he added. "We spent less than a day talking about fifteen executed medics."

Lambert's comments follow criticism from British MPs in the UK House of Commons, questioning whether KNEECAP's upcoming performance at Glastonbury should be cancelled. The Belfast rap trio were also recently dropped by Eden Project's Eden Sessions concerts in Cornwall, and by Germany's Hurricane and Southside festivals.

It was reported in recent days that British counter-terrorism police were investigating footage from two separate KNEECAP gigs. One allegedly featured a band member shouting "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah," while the other video appeared to show a member stating: "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP."

The footage surfaced shortly after one of the trio's performances in Coachella earlier this month, where they displayed messages such as "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people" and "Fuck Israel, Free Palestine."

After British Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called for the band to be prosecuted, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin asked the rappers to "urgently clarify" their position, KNEECAP released a statement on Tuesday, denouncing a "smear campaign" against them, stating they have never supported terrorist groups Hamas nor Hezbollah.

Now, manager Daniel Lambert has appeared on RTÉ's Prime Time to defend the band. Talking to Miriam O'Callaghan on Tuesday night, he said that "at every point, (KNEECAP) have the absolute conviction that they are doing the right thing and they stand on the right side of history."

"A video didn't emerge," he added. "There was a concerted campaign emanating from the US to analyse every single thing that KNEECAP have ever said.

"Why this happened was because of what they said at Coachella, and what they said at Coachella was the right thing to say. It's a message aimed at governments who are enabling a genocide in Gaza.

"What really scared the state of Israel, and what lead to this campaign, is the reaction of young people in America," added Lambert. "Young people who aren't willing to support a genocide, young people who have empathy and sympathy towards the Palestinian people."

Asked by O'Callaghan if saying "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah" is ever right, Lambert said that "we’re in the space now of moral hysteria and moral outrage."

"You’ve a band being held to higher moral account than politicians who are ignoring international law," he added.

"Children are starving to death, and we're spending six or seven days talking about KNEECAP. We spent less than a day talking about fifteen executed medics.

"Why are the Palestinians where they are today? They’re where they are because there’s been a wholesale denial of their rights as human beings," he added.

O'Callaghan reminded Lambert that MPs have been murdered in the past, and questioned whether KNEECAP should be more careful with its language.

In their recent written statement, KNEECAP apologised to the families of Labour MP Jo Cox and Conservative MP Sir David Amess, who were murdered in 2016 and 2021, noting that they "never intended to cause [them] hurt."

"The idea that that was incitement of violence against an MP is ludicrous," said Lambert. "It was taken entirely out of context. They are performers, it was part of a performance. If you were to look at dozens of comedians globally, and take six words out of a comedy act and then lay it out, you could do that to dozens of people."

Lambert also said the band are not worried about their upcoming performance at Glastonbury Festival.

"It's not for us to worry. It's for us to have the strength and conviction that we did the right thing."