LONDON: The BBC said Monday it should have pulled a livestream of rap group Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury Festival over “antisemitic” chants against Israeli troops.

The British broadcaster has come under heavy criticism for broadcasting the rap punk duo’s performance Saturday, when rapper Bobby Vylan led crowds attending the UK’s largest summer music festival in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF,” the Israel Defense Forces.

The BBC said Monday that it “respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence.”

“The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves,” it said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the chants, saying there was no excuse for such “appalling hate speech.”

“The BBC needs to explain how these scenes came to be broadcast,” Starmer said.

Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, also said it was “very concerned” about the BBC livestream and said the broadcaster “clearly has questions to answer.”

The BBC said earlier in its defense that it had issued a warning on screen about “very strong and discriminatory language” during the livestream.

Bob Vylan, who formed in 2017, have released four albums addressing issues to do with racism, masculinity and class. Its two members both keep their real names secret for privacy reasons.

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