Great stuff. The real purpose behind these fuckers "language rights" activity is to signal who is truly Irish, a Gael, and who is not i.e. the great majority of actually existing Irish people. The English commentators and arty people who defend them boil my piss even more
Thanks Eamann! As I was writing I was wondering what you'd make of it and whether I'd got the history broadly correct, or at least correct enough for the point I was making :)
“Kneecap” refers to a kind of torture perpetrated by Irish nationalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, where the knee cap would be shot at close range, permanently disabling the person. Just in case it wasn’t already clear how nasty this group is. The significance of the balaclava in relation to paramilitary groups is also well understood.
Yes, you are right. I should have made that clear. Obviously this band is aligned to an Irish nationalist movement. But my point is that their name glorifies terrorism.
The dreadlock guy who lead the 'Death to the IDF' chant, also exclaimed 'You want your country back? Shut the f**k up?' which obviously doesn't square very well with Palestinian nationalism. I think trying to analyze these ideas beyond 'my team good, your team bad' is to distort them.
convenient to overlook British and French involvement in establishing mandates, various politicians disagreement and role in nation creation. Boundaries on maps were drawn before language took root. Edwin Montagu was a dissenting voice:
Cognitive dissonance is the resting state of the ‘progressive’ left. What’s dumber - Kneecap’s pathetic ignorance of decolonization, or Queers for Palestine’s politics? It’s a race to the bottom in the Free Palestine cult.
Another similarity between English & Arabic colonialism Kneecap might dwell upon is the treatment of women. Cromwell's troops slashed Irish women's faces open with razors, & sliced off their "haunches" for being immodestly dressed in Puritan eyes.
Hama's behaviour at the Supernova Festival was no different.
Another great piece Alex - really informative. But this line seems callous, as well as objectively questionable: "the Palestinians, despite many other problems, have never faced a genuine existential threat to their culture." Problems? No threat to the culture? Gaza is in a state of anarchy and misery. Civilians attempting to get hold of what aid there is are being shot. Huge numbers of women and children have been killed, whatever the precise figures. Gaza´s material culture has been reduced to rubble. Settlers are terrorising West Bank inhabitants with impunity and genocidal rhetoric is mainstream. Reducing Palestinian culture to the Arabic language is bizarre. Would it not be possible to address these horrific facts - albeit in passing - at the same time as challenging the ignorance and ideogical distortions which allow Kneecap and people like them to depict Israel, wrongly, as a colonialist project responsible at root for all the violence? Can you really not find fault with, if not the war itself, then certain aspects of the war, or the extent to which Netanyahu´s fanatic government and its allies are exploiting the moment to step up the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank? Your attack on the ignorance of pro-Palestinian activists, and the free pass many people give to Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, which is, of course, repulsive as well as idiotic, would be more powerful if you could show some empathy with why so many people are reacting with horror to what is going on. I read this and feel something similar to what I felt when so many on the "left" responded, without skipping a beat, to the atrocities of October the 7th with "context". Kneecap are not intellectuals. And whatever the (enormous) faults of the wider intellectual culture, it seems to me that they are likely channelling legitimate feelings through bad, stupid ideas.
I should have used a stronger word than problems but I deliberately didn't anywhere criticise Kneecap's stance on the war in Gaza (I actually cut a line making it clear that this wasn't a comment on that particular issue), which is why I didn't think it was necessary to go into some of the issues you describe above. It's also untrue to say I don't find fault with the war or certain aspects of the war. It's true that I don't write a lot in that register, but that's mainly because I stick to writing about topics where I can offer something original that's not being said - I'm not trying to compete with Haaretz. So that's not what this article was about, nor was it about the broader issue of how and why people protest against the war (and while I have plenty to say about pro-Palestinian activists, my intention here was to be focused on Kneecap vis-a-vis the language issue). But I maintain the point about threat to the culture - unlike the groups mentioned in the article, Palestinians have never faced a threat to their language or religion, or to be frank the actual prospect of extinction. This isn't meant to downplay the terrible things they've been through or the horrors of the war, which one should be able to acknowledge irrespective of one's views on the political culture of Gaza, but it's important to emphasize this difference, which is so frequently misunderstood.
Also, on a brighter note, I'd be interested in what you might have to write about Israeli hip hop, as a follow-up... perhaps with a few recommendations. My knowledge on the subject in limited to Hadag Nachash.
I think one can remember similar or analogous analyses done on the apparent embrace of terroristic violence and internal ideological inconsistencies of rap artists like Public Enemy “Fuck the Police” or Ice-T “Cop Killa” in the early 1990s.
I suspect it will amount to as much in understanding why the militant anti-Israel messaging seems to resonate so strongly with today’s young western concertgoers and pop music consumers.
The simple fact is that most Irish people are not willing to do what the Jews in Palestine a century ago did, namely speak their ancestral language in their daily lives. Some do, of course - I know people for whom Irish is the normal language of their home - but they are a very small minority. For most Irish people, the language is an ornament, something that is given a polite nod in official contexts but not actually used for real life conversations.
The existential envy of the dead over the living?
Perhaps!
Great stuff. The real purpose behind these fuckers "language rights" activity is to signal who is truly Irish, a Gael, and who is not i.e. the great majority of actually existing Irish people. The English commentators and arty people who defend them boil my piss even more
Thanks Eamann! As I was writing I was wondering what you'd make of it and whether I'd got the history broadly correct, or at least correct enough for the point I was making :)
“Kneecap” refers to a kind of torture perpetrated by Irish nationalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, where the knee cap would be shot at close range, permanently disabling the person. Just in case it wasn’t already clear how nasty this group is. The significance of the balaclava in relation to paramilitary groups is also well understood.
Kneecappings were also carried out by loyalists.
Yes, you are right. I should have made that clear. Obviously this band is aligned to an Irish nationalist movement. But my point is that their name glorifies terrorism.
The dreadlock guy who lead the 'Death to the IDF' chant, also exclaimed 'You want your country back? Shut the f**k up?' which obviously doesn't square very well with Palestinian nationalism. I think trying to analyze these ideas beyond 'my team good, your team bad' is to distort them.
Thank god we have your expertise in music to set that record straight.
convenient to overlook British and French involvement in establishing mandates, various politicians disagreement and role in nation creation. Boundaries on maps were drawn before language took root. Edwin Montagu was a dissenting voice:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/montagu-memo-on-british-government-s-anti-semitism
How is this point relevant to anything I wrote in the article?
That is an excellent dissection of the selective and biased outrage that the likes of Kneecap demonstrate.
I am reminded of this piece, in a similar vein.
https://1000yearview.substack.com/p/the-immoral-morality-play-of-settler
Also:
https://scribejohn.substack.com/p/reverse-colonialism
Couldn’t agree more in fact I was discussing this exact point yesterday (you said it better of course)
Thanks!
Cognitive dissonance is the resting state of the ‘progressive’ left. What’s dumber - Kneecap’s pathetic ignorance of decolonization, or Queers for Palestine’s politics? It’s a race to the bottom in the Free Palestine cult.
Another similarity between English & Arabic colonialism Kneecap might dwell upon is the treatment of women. Cromwell's troops slashed Irish women's faces open with razors, & sliced off their "haunches" for being immodestly dressed in Puritan eyes.
Hama's behaviour at the Supernova Festival was no different.
Another great piece Alex - really informative. But this line seems callous, as well as objectively questionable: "the Palestinians, despite many other problems, have never faced a genuine existential threat to their culture." Problems? No threat to the culture? Gaza is in a state of anarchy and misery. Civilians attempting to get hold of what aid there is are being shot. Huge numbers of women and children have been killed, whatever the precise figures. Gaza´s material culture has been reduced to rubble. Settlers are terrorising West Bank inhabitants with impunity and genocidal rhetoric is mainstream. Reducing Palestinian culture to the Arabic language is bizarre. Would it not be possible to address these horrific facts - albeit in passing - at the same time as challenging the ignorance and ideogical distortions which allow Kneecap and people like them to depict Israel, wrongly, as a colonialist project responsible at root for all the violence? Can you really not find fault with, if not the war itself, then certain aspects of the war, or the extent to which Netanyahu´s fanatic government and its allies are exploiting the moment to step up the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank? Your attack on the ignorance of pro-Palestinian activists, and the free pass many people give to Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists, which is, of course, repulsive as well as idiotic, would be more powerful if you could show some empathy with why so many people are reacting with horror to what is going on. I read this and feel something similar to what I felt when so many on the "left" responded, without skipping a beat, to the atrocities of October the 7th with "context". Kneecap are not intellectuals. And whatever the (enormous) faults of the wider intellectual culture, it seems to me that they are likely channelling legitimate feelings through bad, stupid ideas.
I should have used a stronger word than problems but I deliberately didn't anywhere criticise Kneecap's stance on the war in Gaza (I actually cut a line making it clear that this wasn't a comment on that particular issue), which is why I didn't think it was necessary to go into some of the issues you describe above. It's also untrue to say I don't find fault with the war or certain aspects of the war. It's true that I don't write a lot in that register, but that's mainly because I stick to writing about topics where I can offer something original that's not being said - I'm not trying to compete with Haaretz. So that's not what this article was about, nor was it about the broader issue of how and why people protest against the war (and while I have plenty to say about pro-Palestinian activists, my intention here was to be focused on Kneecap vis-a-vis the language issue). But I maintain the point about threat to the culture - unlike the groups mentioned in the article, Palestinians have never faced a threat to their language or religion, or to be frank the actual prospect of extinction. This isn't meant to downplay the terrible things they've been through or the horrors of the war, which one should be able to acknowledge irrespective of one's views on the political culture of Gaza, but it's important to emphasize this difference, which is so frequently misunderstood.
I thought the band's name was as in the verb, "to kneecap", which was a punishment doled out by the IRA. What would be the Hebrew translation of that?
No exact translation really. I mean the closest thing would probably refer to Rabin's infamous 'break their bones' remark from the First Intifada.
That's less catchy, if directed at kneecaps.
Also, on a brighter note, I'd be interested in what you might have to write about Israeli hip hop, as a follow-up... perhaps with a few recommendations. My knowledge on the subject in limited to Hadag Nachash.
Sadly I am not a big expert! But this is the place to go for that - https://jjuiceradio.com/
I think one can remember similar or analogous analyses done on the apparent embrace of terroristic violence and internal ideological inconsistencies of rap artists like Public Enemy “Fuck the Police” or Ice-T “Cop Killa” in the early 1990s.
I suspect it will amount to as much in understanding why the militant anti-Israel messaging seems to resonate so strongly with today’s young western concertgoers and pop music consumers.
The simple fact is that most Irish people are not willing to do what the Jews in Palestine a century ago did, namely speak their ancestral language in their daily lives. Some do, of course - I know people for whom Irish is the normal language of their home - but they are a very small minority. For most Irish people, the language is an ornament, something that is given a polite nod in official contexts but not actually used for real life conversations.
Maybe we should offer Kneecap a course: "Lessons in How To Revive A Dead Language."
Just for funsies.
Absolutely no charge.
On us.