Cultural rebellion against Starmer for listing Palestinian activists as terrorist organizations: "The government's carnival of distraction continues."

And we already know that this story is about more than Kneecap . It's a story about Palestine." Mo Chara , the stage name of Irish rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, was clear as he left Westminster Magistrates' Court, where he appeared yesterday accused of supporting Hezbollah , an Islamist terrorist organization banned in the United Kingdom. Surrounded by his colleagues from the combative Belfast band - Naoise Ó Cairealláin, alias Móglai Bap , and JJ Ó Dochartaigh ( DJ Próvai ) - in a stand erected outside the London court, the singer turned the attention to the famine and destruction that the Gaza Strip is experiencing.

The trio pushed past, at times, hundreds of people who supported them with shouts of support and slogans on banners, T-shirts, and caps demanding the dismissal of the charges and freedom for the Palestinian people. Many wore the distinctive Palestinian headscarf, and Mo Chara himself sported an elegant green one with orange stripes in Courtroom 1 , where the Northern Irish rapper's hearing was held.

The singer was released on bail without conditions after nearly four hours of legal arguments on technical issues. According to his lawyers, the prosecution missed the deadline for filing charges and ignored other requests, which invalidates the case entirely. The decision by trial judge Paul Goldspring will be announced on September 26.

The "British government's carnival of distraction continues," Kneecap had already claimed on social media on the eve of the hearing. This is the Belfast rapper's second court appearance since he was formally charged, "by postal summons," with a terrorism offense he allegedly committed during the trio's performance at London's Forum on November 21, 2024.

The prosecution accuses the rapper of publicly displaying and embracing the flag of the Hezbollah organization. At the initial hearing last June, the prosecution confirmed that it has a "video recording" showing the Kneecap co-founder waving the alleged flag in "such a way as to raise suspicions that he is a sympathizer" of this Lebanese military faction. OHana, according to the English version of the defendant's surname, allegedly chanted "Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah" during the aforementioned performance at a venue in the Kentish Town neighborhood.

Kneecap considers the court proceedings a "distraction" from the "Gaza genocide" while the "British state sells arms and supports war crimes." The group warns that, since the June hearing, "Israel has murdered another 9,000 Palestinians, mainly children and women, and more than a thousand while queuing" to collect humanitarian aid . It also denies any association with Hamas or Hezbollah.

In these past two months, the pro-Palestine movement has suffered a severe setback in the United Kingdom with unpredictable consequences. Keir Starmer's Labour government has clipped the wings of Palestine Action, a group that promotes direct action against Israeli interests and companies involved in the war machine in Gaza and the West Bank. This has sparked an international campaign of protest, solidarity, and civil disobedience.

The group has been designated a terrorist organization, with the approval of the Westminster Parliament, following a notorious infiltration by half a dozen activists into a military base, where they sprayed paint on the engines of two aircraft, causing material damage estimated at around seven million euros. Palestine Action was outlawed on July 5, despite the initiation of legal proceedings against the proscription order, which will be fully reviewed in November.

The group has been active since July 2020 against the production and supply chain of military equipment to Israel. Since then, its members have carried out loud banging attacks on facilities of the defense firm Elbit Systems, climbed onto factory rooftops, chained themselves to infrastructure, and displayed banners demanding an end to arms sales to Israel during missions whose images they shared on digital platforms.

More than 700 people have been arrested since Palestine Action was designated a terrorist group, in the same category as the Islamic State and the Russian paramilitary group Wagner , among others. Fifty percent are over 60 years old, including veterans of movements defending civil liberties, human rights, or Palestinian self-determination. Many were arrested while peacefully demonstrating, carrying banners with slogans in support of the outlawed group and denouncing the genocide in Gaza.

The government relied on the measure's deterrent effect, justifying it on the grounds of national security. Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper explain, without providing evidence, that the group was planning larger attacks and that the ban is not an exercise in censorship or a motive to silence other pro-Palestine campaigns. The message has, for the moment, fallen on deaf ears and is damaging the United Kingdom's reputation. Even the Foreign Office has issued a warning about the issue because, as revealed in legal documents, Palestine Action "is perceived in many countries as an activist rather than an extremist group."

Mo Chara faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison if the prosecution does not drop the charges and he loses the trial. Irish writer Sally Rooney faces a 14-year prison sentence . The author of the bestselling novel Normal People has openly stated her intention to fund Palestine Action with intellectual property income she earns in the UK from her books and from the BBC's broadcast of adaptations of her best-selling works. " If that makes me a 'supporter of terrorism' under UK law, then so be it ," she challenged in an article in The Irish Times .

The novelist was not the only figure to speak out against the Starmer government's measures. Actors Judi Dench and Benedict Cumberbatch; singers Dua Lipa and Annie Lennox; former footballer and television analyst Gary Lineker; and 400 other public figures expressed their opposition to the Labour government's foreign policy. They all signed a public statement calling on the prime minister to immediately suspend arms sales to Israel, ensure the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and coordinate a permanent truce to prevent famine in the Strip.

And the cultural and academic world's confrontation with the prime minister over this case is only growing. This comes at a time when Starmer's popularity has plummeted after just one year at 10 Downing Street. Brian Eno is organizing a massive benefit concert in London under the banner " Together for Palestine ," which has already confirmed the presence of Damon Albarn, Jamie XX, King Krute, and Paloma Faith, among many other artists.

On August 6, around 50 academics and writers published a letter in The Guardian , also addressed to the Labour leader, urging him to lift the ban on Palestine Action because it represented "an attack on fundamental freedoms." Among the signatories were Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, and Angela Davis.