The punk band who called for the death of the Israel Defence Force at Glastonbury are suing a Jewish organisation after it appealed for a forthcoming gig in Manchester to be cancelled.
Bob Vylan, the duo who prompted outrage when they chanted ‘death, death to the IDF’, have called in lawyers after they were labelled ‘antisemitic’ and accused of ‘incitement’ by the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester ahead of next month’s planned concert.
The Jewish communal group have been joined by at least ten MPs who have demanded the gig scheduled for the Manchester Academy on November 5 be called off, citing the terror attack in the city earlier this month at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue.
The decision by the band to go on the offensive was last night labelled an ‘outrage’ by one source in the Jewish community.
Another told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We were shocked but perhaps not surprised to receive letters from lawyers representing Bob Vylan.
‘They don’t seem to realise that it’s their own hateful and dangerous actions that are the problem, not us.’
It is understood that a letter has been sent to the JRC of Manchester, alleging defamation in labelling the band antisemetic.
Bob Vylan is also understood to be intending to take action against radio broadcaster LBC for the same reason.
Bob Vylan’s anger was sparked after the JRC issued a statement ahead of the gig, close to the synagogue in Crumpsall on October 2.
Pictured: Bobby Vylan, of punk duo Bob Vylan, performing on the West Holts Stage during the Glastonbury Festival this year
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, both died in the attack, which unfolded on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, with police saying the attack was inspired by Islamist extremist ideology.
The JRC said it was ‘deeply concerned’ by the venue’s decision to host the act, highlighting a pattern of behaviour they described as ‘hateful and dangerous’.
It said: ‘We are deeply concerned by Manchester Academy’s decision to host Bob Vylan, an artist who has repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that crosses the line from legitimate political discourse into antisemitism and incitement.
‘We are even more alarmed given that the Director-General of the BBC accepted that he was responsible for an antisemitic broadcast by covering their Glastonbury performance – one that directly led to an increase in hate crime against the Jewish community.’
Reports of antisemitic hate incidents in the UK spiked a day after Bob Vylan’s controversial Glastonbury performance, according to figures from a Jewish security charity earlier this year.
As well as his on-stage comments at Glastonbury. Bob Vylan’s frontman Pascal Robinson-Foster launched an outspoken attack in Junbe on a Jewish music manager who signed a letter of protest to stop Irish band Kneecap from performing at the festival, describing him as a ‘Zionist.’
He also referred to the boss of a record company he once worked for who ‘would talk about his support for Israel’ and whom he went on to describe in abusive terms, before adding ‘f…ing Zionists.’
Last month at a gig in Amsterdam the Mr Robinson-Foster shouted on stage: ‘F*** the Zionists. Go find them in the streets.’
Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs across Greater Manchester have backed calls for the gig to be banned, while the US State Department recently revoked the band’s visas citing ‘hateful tirades.’
The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which monitors antisemitism in the UK, said a total of 1,521 antisemitic incidents were reported in the first half of 2025.
