Primal Scream has faced criticism for reportedly displaying antisemitic imagery while performing in London.
The rock band, whose frontman Bobby Gillespie has long been an outspoken criticiser of Israel, displayed images of a Jewish Star of David merged with a Swastika – the symbol of the Nazis, who exterminated 6 million Jewish people during the holocaust.
The Jewish charity Community Security Trust said it had reported the band to police for antisemitism, while The Roundhouse music venue told The Daily Mail it would be launching an investigation.
The images came on screen during the already controversial song ‘Swastika Eyes’, which was written in 1999 about American foreign policy.
As the band played the song, footage of a devastated Gaza was displayed on screen. Then images of a Star of David – made up of two triangles and representing the Jewish people for centuries – were shown, incorporated with a Swastika.
Pictures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other Israeli politicians, Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer then appeared with the Star of David/Swastika image twirling in their eyes. The segment concluded with the words, ‘Our Government is complicit in genocide.’
One 47-year-old Jewish fan of the band, who requested not to be named, said he had to leave the concert temporarily as the images so chilled him.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘I knew it would be a political concert and that there would likely to be something on Gaza because Bobby Gillespie is sympathetic towards the Palestinians, so I was already a bit nervous.
‘But when I saw this image – pure racism – I felt sick.
‘Obviously, there are a million conversations about what is and what isn’t antisemitism, and I know some people get frustrated because they feel they can’t show any sympathy with Palestinians without being called antisemitic.
‘But using the Jewish star, not even in Israel’s colours, with a Swastika, isn’t even vaguely a grey area. It is pure antisemitism.
‘I just thought about my grandparents, who were both Holocaust survivors, and what they would think about me paying money to see a band that would do this. There are a lot of things they could say about the war which would be powerful, but this belittles any argument they might have.
‘When I saw the image, I had to go out of the concert hall for a bit. It killed the whole gig for me. I have been a fan of their music for a long time – no longer.’
Equating Jews and the Nazis, who wiped out two-thirds of Europe’s Jews, is antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, which is used by the UK government.
Any political beliefs should be kept out of entertainment venues, and if they are shown for any reason. They should carry a mandatory prison policy, and it just goes to show how many ordinary people support terrorism.
We should not be supporting this kind of thing because that’s when wars carry on and never stop.
I’m not a Primal Scream buff, and never have been. It’s not my style of music, but they apparently have a political agenda, particularly when they’re showing racist imagery.
In addition to being extremely mind-controlling and inciting hatred, they are failing to present a positive image to children whose minds are like sponges.
If Israel and Palestine want to fight a war that neither will ever win, let them, but it’s not everyone else’s fight – everybody else should keep out of it, and as for Primal Scream, we really shouldn’t give them the attention they crave.
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