Liam O'Hanna, a member of the Irish rap band Kneecap, was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in London on charges that he displayed a Hezbollah flag at a show in November.

Allegedly flying the flag created a “reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organization, namely Hizballah,” the police said.

Supporting Hezbollah is against the law in Great Britain, specifically Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000.

"Political policing"

A statement from the band on Instagram on May 22 only bolstered the accusations against O'Hanna, accusing the government of “political policing.”

“14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food set by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us,” they claimed.

The statement is likely connected to the comment of United Nations Under-Secretary General Tom Fletcher to the BBC that “[t]here are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them” in Gaza.

A report was cited by the UN to support this claim when questioned.

The report

The report did say that 14,100 children between the ages of six and 59 months would likely suffer malnutrition between April 2025 and March 2026.

This is quite different from starvation in "48 hours" as O'Hanna claimed, however.

The band continued the statement, saying, “We deny this ‘offence’ and will vehemently defend ourselves. This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction.”

“We are not the story. Genocide is," they claimed. "As they profit from genocide, they use an ‘anti-terror law’ against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their ‘crown court’ instead a court that doesn’t have a jury.”

"Free Palestine"

The statement boldly concluded by expressing support for Palestine: “We stand proudly with the people. You stand complicit with the war criminals. We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in court. We will win. Free Palestine.”

It echoes similar statements made at Coachella Music Festival in April. “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” they wrote. “It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. F**k Israel; free Palestine.”

O'Hanna will need to be in court in London on June 18.