Kneecap, Palestine, and the Fall of the House of Osbourne
When opposing a genocide became worse than committing it.
I. Creatives for Genocide
“Join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa.”
With those words, Sharon Osbourne torched what little remained of her husband’s legacy, all in the service of defending a genocide.
To be clear, Ozzy, who is now wheelchair-bound (likely from the weight of his entire family riding on his coattails), isn’t a victim. He’s been a willing accomplice in shielding Israel from criticism, happily lending his name to pro-Israel front groups.
Ozzy and Sharon’s ties to these groups go back years. Chief among them is the paradoxically named “Creative Community for Peace” (“CCFP”), a far-right Zionist outfit that uses celebrities to deflect criticism of Israeli crimes. As Jewish Voices for Peace reported:
“CCFP carefully hides from artists that it is actually a front group for StandWithUs (SWU), a long-established anti-Palestinian, pro-Israeli settler lobby group with close ties to Israel’s hardline government. Registration and tax documents show that StandWithUs and Creative Community for Peace are simply alternate names for a single IRS-registered non-profit, ‘Israel Emergency Alliance.’”
“Examples of SWU and CCFP’s partnership with the Israeli government include convening an organizing meeting with Israeli government officials and music industry executives, and producing a pro-settler video series with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SWU even announced they were awarded a grant from Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office.”
It’s propaganda, plain and simple, and Ozzy and Sharon are willing participants. In fact, it was in that spirit that back in March they signed a letter denouncing the BBC for its allegedly “anti-Israel bias” after airing a documentary about the situation in Gaza (and which the BBC pulled almost immediately after airing). These accusations were especially grotesque, given that every serious analysis of BBC coverage shows a consistent pro-Israel bias, something that even the BBC’s own staff have complained about.
Despite Ozzy and Sharon’s repugnant views about the situation in Palestine, however, they have the same right as anyone else to be fundamentally wrong. And given Ozzy’s undeniable, years-long intellectual deterioration, it never seemed worth dignifying their comatose geopolitical takes with attention.
But then came Coachella.
II. If You’re Not Calling it a Genocide…
Kneecap are an Irish hip hop trio known for weaving Irish language, culture, and Republicanism into their music. As an anti-colonial movement, Irish Republicanism has a long-standing history of solidarity with Palestinian liberation—and Kneecap have carried that torch proudly (1, 2, 3, 4).
It was this solidarity that led them to cancel their appearance at last year’s SXSW festival, publicly denouncing its close ties to the U.S. military. Given America’s role in enabling the genocide in Palestine, they refused to perform at a festival bankrolled by the same war machine that made it possible.
Through their actions in solidarity with the Palestinians, Kneecap did more than just remind people about the genocide. Instead, they exposed the media’s pro-Israel bias.
Take, for example, their appearance last year on Ireland’s Late Late Show, when they were attacked for allegedly breaking an agreement not to wear any pro-Palestinian symbols. The potential backlash was so significant that the host felt compelled to remind viewers that even though “our thoughts are with everybody in that conflict“, when it came to Palestine, there was “also another side.”
That kind of performative “balance” is never demanded when condemning Russia, Iran, China, or any other designated enemy. But when it comes to Israel—a state under investigation for war crimes by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice— asking “but what if the victims had it coming?” becomes mandatory.
The double standard applied to Palestine is deeply-rooted, shaped by ignorance, idiocy, and imperialism. Support for Palestine isn’t seen as solidarity, being instead framed as dangerous, antisemitic, and even criminal.
Take Cornell University’s recent cancellation of Kehlani’s performance at Slope Day. According to the university, the R&B singer was injecting “division and discord” by expressing “antisemitic, anti-Israel sentiments”—which is to say, publicly supporting Palestine in the face of a genocide.
Now compare that to last year’s commencement at Duke University, where Jerry Seinfeld gave the keynote address. There the scandal wasn’t Seinfeld’s questionable history with minors, or that he’s a rabid Zionist who even visited an “Anti-Terror Fantasy Camp” in the Occupied Territories to roleplay murdering Palestinians.
No. The scandal was that students dared to walk out of his speech. According to front groups like CCFP, that wasn’t just a protest. It was “antisemitic” and “pro-Hamas.”
This double standard was on full display at Coachella, where Kneecap performed on both weekends.
During their first set, elements were quietly censored. So the second time around they came prepared.
"The Irish, not so long ago, were persecuted at the hands of the Brits. But we were never bombed from the fucking skies with nowhere to go. The Palestinians have nowhere to go.
If you're not calling it a genocide, what the fuck are you calling it?"
III. War is Peace.
Kneecap’s act of solidarity might have made the biggest splash, but they weren’t alone. Other artists—including Bob Vylan, Blonde Redhead, and Green Day— also spoke out for the victims of the genocide. And no matter how small the gesture, they all caught hell for it.
Green Day’s “crime” was microscopic: a minor lyric tweak during Jesus of Suburbia, changing “running away from pain when you’ve been victimized” to “running away from pain like the kids from Palestine.” They’d done something similar in Mexico the year before, but Coachella’s size and reach made it impossible for the propagandists to ignore. Acknowledging the genocide on stage became the real offense.
Mainstream American media reacted exactly as you’d expect.
Fox News compared the artists to Nazis, while others mourned the supposed pain and suffering caused by a handful of musicians daring to remind people of the existence of the Palestinians. Some even claimed that artists like Green Day and Kneecap had attacked Israel and the US by even mentioning the genocide.
“Let’s be clear: this isn’t about artistic freedom. I’m a First Amendment near-absolutist,” wrote Lee Trink, former president of Capitol Records, in an editorial for The Hollywood Reporter.
He then backtracked immediately, declaring that this time those principles could be tossed aside because “this is about enabling hate speech.”
Since getting fired for virtually bankrupting an esports media company, Lee has used his time online to rail against trans rights, woke ideology and DEI initiatives. Despite his apparent dislike for the speech-stifling effects of “wokeness”, however, when it came to shielding Israel from criticism, he had no problem resorting to the same language he normally mocks:
“This is about retraumatizing Jewish attendees — many of them teenagers.”
“The audience was forced to participate in a display that wasn’t just offensive — it was dangerous.”
“What does accountability look like when a $600 ticket buys you fear instead of joy?”
For Lee, October 7 is a wound that never heals. It expands day after day, affecting not just the victims and their families, but anyone who shares their religion or nationality.
And of course, using the conservative’s favorite manipulative trope: “Won’t somebody please think of the children?!” What horrors might these poor souls endure if their $600 weekend of culturally sanitized rebellion is soiled by overhearing an Irish band saying “FUCK ISRAEL,” or middle-aged punk rockers acknowledging that Palestinian children are suffering?
In Lee’s worldview, the wicked organizers of Coachella must be punished for “bringing fear instead of joy.” Violating Zionist safe spaces is a crime graver than mass starvation or slaughter.
And yes; Zionist safe spaces. Because Lee’s moral outrage is reserved exclusively for one cause.
He shows no such concern when denying the existence of Palestine and Palestinians, using “Palestinian” as a slur, joking about Israel booby-trapping kitchen utensils to murder its opponents, or insisting Israel has no obligation to let Palestinians feed themselves, even though international law demands it.
Trink’s hatred for Palestinians makes anything screamed by Coachella bands look tame. But in his world, different rules apply, because, to him, Palestinians and their supporters aren’t human.
Nothing justifies October 7, but October 7 justifies anything.
IV. Stolen Valor and Pink Hairbands
David Draiman, the fanatically Zionist frontman of Disturbed, also joined the pile-on against the artists who dared acknowledge Palestinian suffering.
This 52-year-old man—who never served in the Israeli army that would have gladly taken him—posted a photo giving Kneecap the finger, while calling them “virtue signaling morons” (a phrase he clearly doesn’t understand). Naturally, he praised himself for his “uncensored message” delivered through a stunning and brave sleeveless selfie.
You see, David is a very tough boy. That’s why, even though he always found a reason not to enlist, he made sure everyone knew that he supported the troops “with every fiber” of his being during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Clearly, he has a thing for supporting the wrong side, even if only from a safe distance.
He is the kind of person who fetishizes combat, blood, and sacrifice, not to risk anything himself, but to ingratiate himself with those who do. Like many of the chickenhawks who love wars in which other people fight, he has convinced himself that fellating the military and posing for photo-ops gives him some kind of military cred.
It’s David’s shameless bootlicking that made Disturbed’s cover of The Sound of Silence the quintessential cop funeral music.
Just like he totally could have been a soldier, David Draiman is also on record claiming he totally could have been a lawyer. He says he dropped out of law school because he couldn’t “lie for a living and protect criminals.” However, seeing his record on Israeli and American wars, it’s clear the problem wasn’t lying or defending criminals. He just wanted to do it for free.
Draiman’s subservience to Israel isn’t new and, in fact, goes back all the way to his childhood. Alongside artists like Gene Simmons, he’s long collaborated with Zionist front groups like CCFP—virtue signaling for “peace” while sleevlessly autographing artillery shells used to murder the mostly underage, civilian population of Gaza.
Demonstrating the kind of bravery that gets people medals, Draiman allows no disrespect of Israel’s genocide. His bootlicking has earned him a permanent frontline position, bravely tweeting against anyone who fails to celebrate the slaughter.
Kneecap’s “Free Palestine” and “Fuck Israel” offended him, naturally. But even Green Day’s microscopic lyric tweak was too much for his delicate sensibilities. In response, Draiman publicly invited Billie Joe Armstrong to a totally chill and informal meeting to explain “the Israeli/Jewish side of this horrific war”. Then, sounding less like a tough guy and more like a scorned lover, he added “I’m available to discuss whenever you are. No judgment, nothing preconceived...”
Or at least as few preconceptions as you can expect from a man who signs artillery shells and fellates war criminals like it’s his job.
But Draiman isn’t unique. His desperate need to punish even the slightest deviation from pro-Israel orthodoxy is part of a broader pattern.
In the abusive relationship the West maintains with Israel, even acknowledging that Israeli actions cause harm is seen as problematic. Israelis weaponize their own historical suffering to bully and destroy, treating any criticism as an attack.
Ms. Rachel, the beloved children’s YouTuber, found this out after daring to express sympathy for Israeli and Palestinian children. For her empathy, she landed in the crosshairs of StopAntisemitism, a Zionist front group that petitioned the DOJ to investigate her for “disseminating Hamas-aligned propaganda.”
StopAntisemitism also named Ms. Rachel “Antisemite of the Week,” a title she gets to share with Ayatollah Khamenei, Greta Thunberg, Dave Chappelle, Ken Roth, Nick Fuentes, Mark Ruffalo, Francesca Albanese, Joe Rogan, and Kanye West.
In the moral wasteland of genocide propaganda, there’s no meaningful difference between a self-described anti-semite saying “I LOVE HITLER,” a holocaust denier, a UN Rapporteur accusing Israel of war crimes, and Ms. Rachel saying “We can’t let children starve.” All of them are equally antisemitic and damaging to the security of Israel.
Israel and its accomplices have a long history of panicking at any shift in public perception. Israeli political scientist Avner Yaniv even coined the term “Palestinian Peace Offensive" to describe Palestinian attempts at a peaceful resolution, and which threatened Israel’s ability to control the narrative.
The war propaganda depends on dismissing Palestinians as “terrorists” and “antisemites.” If Palestinians are seen as human beings seeking peace, or as victims of Israeli crimes, the entire justification for endless violence collapses.
In a culture this hysterical, even a handful of slogans at Coachella couldn’t be tolerated. And, for some, angry editorials wouldn’t quite cut it.
V. The Red Queen’s Revenge
In 1988, Geraldo Rivera aired his infamous Satanic Panic special, Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground—a masterclass in obscurantism and manufactured hysteria.
Starting from the false premise that Satanists were committing murder and abuse all across America, Geraldo assembled a cast of self-proclaimed “experts” to spin lurid tales of ritual sacrifice and demonic possession.
It didn’t take long for heavy metal to be dragged into the conversation. Geraldo warned viewers that even if most fans weren’t Satanists, “there’s an undeniable connection between obsession with the really hard stuff and the occult.”
By then, heavy metal had been in the moral panic crosshairs for years, accused of promoting Satanism, suicide, and occultism. Black Sabbath had already been smeared as “Satan Rock” in the early ‘70s, and by the late ‘80s, the PMRC was even selling $15 “Satanism Research Packets” to desperate parents trying to save their kids from the dark magic of guitar solos.
Ozzy Osbourne, appearing via satellite, was trotted out as heavy metal’s representative, tasked with defending artists, fans, and himself during Geraldo’s Torquemada Holiday Special.
And yet, despite living through a full-blown moral panic, the Osbournes learned all the wrong lessons. They treated free expression not as a principle to defend, but as a tool to use and exploit. Their interest is exclusively financial, with value extraction as their lodestar.
This view of civil liberties as something that matters only if they can profit from them is a family value for the Osbournes. Case in point, when Kelly Osbourne, Ozzy’s daughter, “defended” Latinos from Trump’s racism in 2015, she did so by asking:
“If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?”
She said the quiet part out loud: In her gilded world, entire communities aren't seen as people first, but as a permanent servant class. She later apologized, blaming the gaffe, as celebrities often do, on anxiety, depression, and addiction, and explained how she had educated herself, and “done the work.”
Then, in the same interview in which she expressed regret for her view of Latinos as perpetual toilet cleaners, this nepo baby, with millions in the bank and not a single day of work behind her, still felt qualified to lecture the poor, explaining it was time for white people to “take a long hard look, check their privilege, and be a little bit more open-minded."
The patronizing, Marie Antoinette vibes would almost be funny if they weren’t so grotesque. Living in a Versailles bubble, Kelly Osbourne is the last person on earth who should be giving moral sermons…
Although, maybe not.
Turns out that the Osbourne’s life is not privileged at all. If anything, it’s dangerous. Uncertain. Practically Dickensian.
Even though both Ozzy and Sharon grew up facing real hardship, apparently nothing could have prepared them for the unimaginable suffering they now endure. As Sharon tearfully explained last year, her and Ozzy were in the process of fleeing the virulent antisemitism they encountered in the famously Jew-hating wasteland of Hollywood.
Following in the footsteps of Jewish refugees who fled Germany with nothing but the shirts on their backs, the Osbournes began planning their Exodus, armed only with the $4.3 million from selling their LA apartment, their multi-million dollar fortune, and their modest collection of mansions.
Tragically, their journey to safety was delayed when Ozzy suffered a fall, leaving them stranded in their $18 million Beverly Hills hideout.
Thoughts and prayers. 🙏🙏🙏
Needless to say, Sharon’s claims about fleeing American antisemitism were lies. So were the claims of their ghost-hunting failson that they were leaving because of rising crime and Americans no longer being “nice.”
Ozzy had already admitted they were moving to dodge a tax hike. The victimhood narrative came later, cooked up only to deflect criticism of Israel.
For Sharon, antisemitism isn’t just hatred of Jews; it’s criticism of Israel. She’s long weaponized that distortion to attack pro-Palestinian voices like Roger Waters, while cozying up to front groups running defense for an apartheid state.
Kneecap were no different.
She wanted them gone. And she knew exactly how to make it happen.
In her crusade against pro-Palestinian speech, Sharon found a perfect ally in Donald Trump.
A fanatical supporter of Israel, Trump is on the record advocating for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, saying the United States can, and will, seize the entire strip and forcibly remove its population.
He even shared a bizarre AI-generated video of what he imagines “American Gaza” would look like, trivializing a crime against humanity in a way that would have made Goebbels blush.
Not content with threatening ethnic cleansing abroad, the Trump administration has also weaponized immigration laws at home to crush dissent. To that end, they’ve violated due process rights, illegally deporting people to rot in Salvadoran gulags, while also clamping down on anti-Israel speech, especially that of non-citizens—despite the fact that the Constitution forbids it.
That’s the power Sharon Osbourne tried to recruit to go after a band.
She was more than happy to call on the same authoritarian president she once criticized (and whose toilets Kelly feared would go uncleaned if they got rid of the Mexicans) and beg him to use his fascist powers against an Irish hip hop band she didn’t like.
Even though she knew that Kneecap’s speech was unquestionably protected by the First Amendment, Sharon asked the U.S. government to break the law in order to silence a handful of Irish rappers that said “Fuck Israel” and “Free Palestine”
And so, to their role as cheerleaders for genocide, the Osbournes can now add a new badge of shame: Becoming Mitläufers in Trump’s descent into fascism.
At least for as long as it suits them.
VI. The Fall of the House of Osbourne
Although Sharon tried to sound magnanimous when it came to Green Day merely mentioning Palestinian children, she was hurt.
“At a time when the world is experiencing significant unrest” she explained “music should serve as an escape, not a stage for political discourse.”
This was a strange position for someone married to Ozzy Osbourne, a man who built his legend on anti-war anthems like War Pigs, Electric Funeral, and Children of the Grave. As Ozzy himself notes in his autobiography, using music to confront real-world horrors wasn’t a side project for Black Sabbath; it was the point. Especially for Geezer Butler, the band’s primary lyricist.
Even Ozzy’s heavily ghostwritten solo work has leaned political when convenient, posing in photo-ops with the US military, and releasing special editions to benefit Ukraine in their war with Russia.
Clearly, "political discourse" is only a problem when Sharon doesn’t like the politics.
Despite how repulsive Sharon’s behavior has been (along with that of every other useful idiot facilitating genocide) their desperation is something to celebrate. Because it shows that change is coming.
The Palestinian people have endured 77 years of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and the slow grinding cruelty of occupation, while America and Europe sent guns, bombs, and blank checks. For decades the suffering remained under the radar.
But not anymore.
The destruction of Gaza is so total, so obscene, that even the most obedient media outlets struggle to spin it. Social media has shattered the censors' monopoly, and we have seen the horror with our own eyes.
The propagandists know it.
The war pigs know it.
Their hysterical shrieking isn’t strength. It’s panic.
They know exactly what’s coming.
Because nothing—not weapons, not armies —is more dangerous than an idea whose time has come.
And it’s time for Palestine.
Additional sources
Selected readings exploring moral panics, propaganda, and the politics of genocide:
Finkelstein, Norman G.
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. Verso, 2000.Finkelstein, Norman G.
Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. University of California Press, 2005.Finkelstein, Norman G.
"This Time We Went Too Far": Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. OR Books, 2010.Carter, Jimmy.
Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Simon & Schuster, 2006.Pappé, Ilan.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications, 2006.Victor, David. (Ed. Kier-La Janisse and Paul Corupe)
Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s. Spectacular Optical Publications, 2015.Osbourne, Ozzy, with Ayres, Chris.
I Am Ozzy. Grand Central Publishing, 2010.