The State Department announced Monday that it had revoked the U.S. visas of the members of the U.K. band Bob Vylan, who had led the crowd at the televised Glastonbury festival in chants of “Death to the IDF!”
The IDF is the acronym for the Israel Defense Forces, a military in which almost every adult male and female serves during their late teens and early twenties. It is widely considered among the most vigilant militaries in terms of human rights, as well as one of the most effective, having faced terrorists and elite armies in battle.
As Breitbart News reported on Sunday, the State Department had been looking to revoke the visas, amid wide condemnation of the Bob Vylan chant, including by the left-wing UK government, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and others.
On Monday, frontman Bobby Vylan stood by the chant: “I said what I said.”
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced Monday on X that Bob Vylan was no longer allowed into the U.S.: “Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.”
“Bob Vylan” is a name borrowed, ironically, from musician Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman), a Jewish music legend who also famously supports Israel. In 1983, Dylan released “Neighborhood Bully,” an allegorical song widely believed to be a response to the demonization of Israel in western media as it fights against terrorists.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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