DVIR ABRAMOVICH: ‘Death to the IDF’ chant at Glastonbury labelled ‘a woke Nuremberg rally’

It wasn’t a mob. It was a music festival.

A few days ago, at one of the world’s most celebrated music festivals, something broke.

On a stage meant for art and joy, a voice rang out.

Not with a protest song or a plea for peace, but with a chant: “Death to the IDF”.

The crowd roared it back. Over and over, like a drumbeat.

Not “peace”. Not “ceasefire”. Not “end the war”. Death.

It happened at Glastonbury, less than two years after 364 young people were murdered by Hamas at the Nova music festival in Israel.

Some of those kids, who were dancing and singing, were shot. Some were raped. Some were burned.

And now, before the grief has even settled, another festival echoes with calls for more death, broadcast live by the BBC, streamed into homes, packaged as culture.

But this time, the chant wasn’t from terrorists. It came from a punk duo called Bob Vylan.

The BBC later apologised. Said they “regretted” not cutting the feed.

That they were dealing with a live situation. But for those who heard it, like the families of the Nova festival victims, Holocaust survivors, and teenagers scrolling TikTok, there is no rewind button.

You can’t unhear a crowd screaming for your death. You can’t un-see a Western stage turned into a rally of hate.

Bob Vylan toured Australia earlier this year.

Australia has no shortage of big, complicated debates. But there should be no debate about this: we don’t celebrate chants for death.

We don’t cheer them. And we certainly don’t invite them back for encores.

If you’re a fan of Bob Vylan’s music, ask yourself what it means to keep listening.

If you’re an artist, ask what it means to keep silent.

And if you’re a promoter or venue, especially in Australia, ask what it means to give a stage to someone who crossed that line.

You can believe in free speech and still believe in boundaries.

You can support Palestinian rights and still reject hatred. You can love music and still say: not this.

If Bob Vylan applies to tour Australia again, we must say no.

Not because we fear dissent, but because we value decency.

Because when we open our doors to visiting performers, we are not just welcoming talent, we are extending trust.

And trust should never be placed in voices that glorify violence.

Because what happened at Glastonbury wasn’t just offensive. It was antisemitism with a sound system. And it was applauded.

It was targeted hate, dressed up as rebellion.

A British stage became what one commentator called “a woke Nuremberg rally”.

And you didn’t need to be Jewish to feel the chill.

Commentators rushed to divide it into boxes. Protest vs performance, rage vs rhetoric.

But the truth is simpler.

Here’s what that chant really meant.

It meant death to Jewish sons and daughters serving in uniform.

It meant applauding the murder of young Israelis, the same kind of kids who, not long ago, were dancing at a music festival in the Negev when Hamas stormed in with fire and bullets.

This isn’t politics. This is inhuman.

This is what mainstreamed antisemitism looks like.

Yes, the US State Department revoked Bob Vylan’s visa.

Yes, UK police opened a hate crime investigation.

But the deeper wound is the applause, not the apology.

The cheer, not the consequence.

The words, “Death to the IDF”.

And maybe the most radical thing we can do next is to sit with the weight of those words.

And remember that music, at its best, is meant to heal.

Let’s hold that note.

Dr Dvir Abramovich is Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission and the author of eight books.