Large Assault have threatened authorized motion in opposition to an Israeli influencer who accused them of “incitement” referring to them displaying footage of late Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar on a video display throughout a live performance.
Sinwar was the Hamas Political Bureau chairman and was killed final yr by Israeli troops in Gaza. He was a chief architect of the assault on October 7, 2023 that killed 1,200 folks and noticed 251 others taken hostage.
Zionist influencer and writer Hen Mazzig shared an 11-second clip of a Large Assault reside present, which confirmed footage of Sinwar. The put up accused the Bristol band of encouraging their followers to “sympathise with Hamas.”
“Why is the self proclaimed ‘professional peace’ band @MassiveAttackUK screening footage of Yahya Sinwar throughout their live performance?” Mazzig wrote. “Sinwar masterminded the slaughter of innocents at a music pageant, but they’re celebrating him at an analogous occasion.
“In the event you’re reserving the UK’s largest area, it is best to care much more concerning the message you’re spreading. Encouraging 23,000+ folks to sympathize with Hamas is greater than irresponsible — it’s incitement.”
In response, Large Assault mentioned on X/Twitter that they considered the tweet as “defamatory” and have handed it to their attorneys. They instructed Mazzig that he should “should delete this put up & situation an apology, or additional motion will comply with.”
For apparent, moral causes referring to its proprietor, Large Assault don’t use ‘X’. Nonetheless, no e mail contact is offered for the writer of this put up, which we take into account defamatory, & has been handed to the band’s attorneys. @hearnimator should delete the unique put up & situation an… https://t.co/1TlKO3TBou
— Large Assault (@MassiveAttackUK) June 9, 2025
The trip-hop veterans then posted an extra assertion to their social media channels. They emphasised that the footage of political leaders that they use in reside exhibits shouldn’t be meant as an endorsement and that anybody who says in any other case is partaking in “deliberate context removing.”
“Large Assault categorically reject any suggestion that footage or reportage used as a part of an inventive digital collage in our reside present seeks to glorify or have fun any featured topic,” the assertion started.
“To isolate a single part of reportage from the creative context inside which it sits — a digital array that spans all kinds of points and themes (and explores how they’re reported & offered by way of mainstream & social media) together with struggle, insurgency, local weather emergency, company tax avoidance, and the mineral exploitation of world south nations, and features a multiplicity of extremely controversial present and historic political figures — is tantamount to a wilful gadget to create situations for misinterpretation, or distortion.”
The band went on: “Within the particular case of the movie loop that features reportage of Yahya Sinwar, the complete sequence interplays with scenes from Jean Cocteau’s movie Orpheus, creating each a placement and implicit tone of horrified lament; that a person of energy can take folks down into hell.
“It could be weird (and maybe revealing) that any observer of the reside present movies would solely residence in on the Sinwar/IDF footage and utterly overlook all different controversial figures featured within the reportage loops.”
They continued: “Would “x” observer counsel we sought to glorify Vladimir Putin, who seems in 4 loops? Or Donald Trump who seems in a number of? Or J Edgar Hoover? Or certainly the IDF troopers who characteristic in the very same location reportage because the Yahya Sinwar footage cited by varied social media accounts?
“Sadly, the one affordable conclusion is that this stage of delierate context removing, and such a leap of misinterpretation has political motivations.
“In a extremely charged environment, public figures together with artists who persistently communicate out in opposition to Israeli struggle crimes, apartheid and human rights abuses, and in protection of the Palestinian persons are subjected to decided and spurious makes an attempt to discredit us, as a deterrent to us from talking out.
“These spurious makes an attempt will at all times fail.”
The unique put up has since been deleted, however Mazzig is but to additional reply.
The band have been vocal supporters of Palestine for years, taking part in a cultural boycott of Israel since 1999.
Their headline set at London’s LIDO Pageant on Friday (June 6) noticed them joined by actor and activist Khalid Abdalla and Yasiin Bey (previously Mos Def) in a present of solidarity with Palestine.
The Bristol trip-hop icons had been beckoned on stage by a big swathe of followers waving Palestinian flags when Abdalla gave a prolonged and impassioned introductory speech calling for peace within the center East and a right away ceasefire alongside the deployment of help to the folks of Gaza.
“Make some noise if you’d like your favorite artists to face up for Palestine,” he mentioned in direction of the top of his speech. “Put your hand in your coronary heart in case you have wept over photographs of youngsters, and moms, and fathers, over final two years. And you understand what? Make some noise – as a result of it means you may have a beating coronary heart. That coronary heart is the important thing to our future.”
“The Palestine Solidarity Motion is the civil rights motion of our time,” he concluded. “It’s the anti-apartheid motion of our time. It’s the anti-genocide motion of our time.”
Elsewhere, their set featured quite a few tributes, with Robert Del Naja paying tribute to harmless kids and journalists which have misplaced their lives in battle. The band additionally displaying footage of the devastation and of the imprisoned Palestinian political chief Marwan Barghouti declaring that “safety will probably be achieved by a technique: by peace”.
They then displayed Nelson Mandela’s 2002 quote “what is occurring to Barghouti is strictly the identical as what occurred to me”, honouring the decision for peace and a two-state resolution, earlier than a Palestinian flag adorned the display and calls of “Free Palestine” rang out.
This comes after Large Assault performed in Manchester’s Co-Op Reside earlier this week once they spoke out in opposition to Barclays’ sponsorship of the venue – taking goal at their “profoundly unethical company id” as a result of its funding in arms corporations that provide Israel “in its genocidal onslaught of Gaza and struggle crimes within the West Financial institution”, in addition to their “large-scale financing of latest fossil gas extraction”.
Because the battle escalates, Israel deny allegations of struggle crimes and genocide.
