‘Disgusting’ Massive Attack display Sinwar footage during concert

The band Massive Attack has been criticised after including footage of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his family members as part of a video montage at their Manchester concert last weekend.

The band, who have been vocal critics of Israel for many years, included the video footage as part of a montage titled “Open the doors to the merchants of death” during their set at the Lido Festival, held at Manchester’s Co op Live Arena. The footage, released by the IDF last year, shows members of the Sinwar family, including the terrorist leader, attempting to hide in tunnels beneath Gaza on 10 October 2023. Three days earlier Hamas had launched an attack on Israel which had been masterminded by Sinwar himself, murdering 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.

Commenting on social media, Alex Gandler, deputy spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the band’s use of the footage as “just disgusting. People have completely lost the plot. They are aligning themselves with the worst humans. Not even hiding their hatred anymore.”

Massive Attack, which denies supporting Hamas, have been vocal supporters of the censure and boycott of Israel. Prior to their concert at the Co op Live, they released a statement condemning the arena’s new sponsorship deal with Barclays, describing the latter as “a commercial endeavour synonymous with the large scale financing of new fossil fuel extraction, and billions of dollars of investments in arms companies that supply Israel in its genocidal onslaught of Gaza, and war crimes in the West Bank.” The band went on to say that “Co op live ownership have agreed to our insistence that all physical and digital Barclays livery and logos be completely removed from the arena itself and our show page on the arena website, and that no show tickets – for sale of complimentary – will go to Barclays.”

Recently, the band were at forefront of those defending Belfast rap trio Kneecap, after the group faced censure when video footage emerged of one of its members waving the Hezbollah flag on stage. Massive Attack released a statement saying that “Kneecap are not the story…as a band that has spoken publicly for more than 30 years about the illegal occupation, apartheid system and killing with impunity of thousands of Palestinians, we are hyper aware of both the human cost of abject silence and the commercial implications of publicly expressing solidarity with an oppressed people.” Hezbollah, which is also a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK, is notorious for having aided the Assad regime in the mass murder of civilians during the Syrian civil war.

In a statement provided to Jewish News on 21 July, the band said: “In addition to our comprehensive statement of the 9 June – and in direct response to spurious and, in our view, entirely politically motivated claims made after our live show in Manchester on 6 June – we reiterate our total rejection that any identity, however controversial, featured within our live performance is being promoted, celebrated, or elevated in any way. There is no credible evidence to support such an allegation. We have not, and will not, alter or change our live show visuals.

“In regard to comments reportedly made by Alex Gandler, the deputy spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we would simply say Mr Gandler should spend less time attacking British musicians and a little more time listening to the views of dozens of members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews who have condemned his government for its heartbreaking war on Gaza.”

Marc Levy, chief executive of the Jewish Representative Council for Greater Manchester and Region, said: “It is astonishing that a band would take the decision to air footage showing Yahya Sinwar, a terrorist responsible for the atrocities committed on 7 October.  The current conflict is complex and nuanced and you have to feel for those members of the audience who recognised Sinwar and understood the band were promoting a terrorist with the blood of thousands of innocent Israelis personally on his hands.  To protect those attending future concerts, we urge Massive Attack to urgently review the visuals they are using”.

In a strongly worded public response from the band on Monday afternoon, Massive Attack said that they “categorically reject any suggestion that footage or reportage used as part of an artistic digital collage in our live show seeks to glorify or celebrate any featured subject.

“To isolate a single section of reportage from the artistic context within which it sits – a digital array that spans a wide variety of issues and themes (and explores how they are reported & presented via mainstream and social media) including war, insurgency, climate emergency, corporate tax avoidance and the mineral exploitation of global south nations, and includes a multiplicity of highly controversial current and historical political figures – is tantamount to a wilful device to create conditions for misinterpretation, or distortion.”

The co op has been contacted for comment.