I saw the video. Bob Vylan stood tall on the Glastonbury stage and yelled with passion what millions of us have said in whispers through tight teeth and wounded hearts: “Death to the IDF.”
And the world… went crazy.
Not because of the kids who died in their sleep.
Not over the women who were ripped apart in front of their relatives.
Not over the old people who died when their homes fell on them.
But about a man who expressed what many of us think.
Let’s take a break. Stop for real.
What makes the world more uncomfortable: an artist’s remarks on stage or the cold-blooded reality of a military force that has been killing civilians for months without punishment?
Let me tell you what I observe.
I see a world that has gotten used to seeing blood, but only when it comes from the incorrect skin color, creed, or story.
I see a system where saying “Death to the IDF” is called extreme, but the IDF launching bombs on refugee camps is called “self-defense.”
I watch journalists getting fired for expressing that Palestinians have a right to life and speakers getting praise for calling kids “human shields.”
There was nothing risky about what Bob Vylan did.
What the IDF does every day with weaponry paid for and supported by governments that call themselves “civilized” is.
And yet, the fury is only for some people. When it’s Gaza, the microphones stop working. When the victims are Palestinian, the weeping stop.
The world has laws about who can feel pain.
Who gets to yell?
Who gets to fight back?
It’s defense when Israel murders.
It’s terror when Palestinians live.
Bob Vylan did not utter “death to Jews.”
He didn’t tell people to hurt innocent people.
He said death to a military force that has made killing people a policy, ethnic cleansing a way of life, and Gaza a graveyard for children.
And if that makes people feel bad, maybe it should.
We might need to stop making genocide seem better.
We should really stop telling individuals who are being oppressed to use nice language when they bury their newborns.
We should question oneself what is worse: a protest shout or a state-sponsored slaughter?
Let me remind you that empires always tell you how to feel.
They’ll tell you who to cry for.
They’ll tell you who to dislike.
They’ll tell you that being quiet is safer.
But being quiet is a betrayal.
To all the people who were upset with Bob Vylan’s chant yet stayed quiet as Gaza burned: Your anger is empty.
You just follow your morals when it suits you.
And your legacy will be written in the wrong part of history.
What about Bob?
He talked with a heart that was still beating.
He said what millions of others want to say but can’t.
And he didn’t tell a lie.
Not even once.