Kneecap have criticised the Norwegian government during their recent set at Øyafestivalen in Oslo.
Ahead of their performance at the festival on Friday (August 8), the Irish rap trio displayed a message on the video screen that accused the Norwegian government of “enabling” the “genocide” in Gaza through the country’s “oil pension fund”.
Kneecap are referring to the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which invests surplus revenues from the country’s petroleum industry and has more than £1.4trillion in assets.
The fund has faced controversy after a recent report from Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten found it had invested around £11.3million in Bet Shemesh Engines Ltd. – a jet engines parts manufacturer supplying the Israeli military – between 2023-2024.
The government has since launched a review of the fund to ensure that it is not investing in Israeli companies contributing to the war in Gaza. Norway has also recognised Palestine as a state.
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@momo63505 The Irish band Kneecap takes the stage at Øyafestivalen Oslo Norway 08/08/2025 Free Free 🍉✌🏼❤️ #Festival #kneecap#fypviral #fyp #you #viralvideo🔥 #freepalestine #gaza #solidarity #norge #oslo #nyheter #news #globalmarchtogaza #fypシ゚viral🖤tiktok
♬ Unstoppable (I put my armor on, show you how strong I am) – Sia
“Over 80,000 people have been murdered by Israel in 21 months,” Kneecap’s message continued. “Free Palestine.” According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 61,158 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
Elsewhere in their performance, Mo Chara told the crowd: “I don’t have to lecture you people,” per Billboard. “I can understand there’s people here like, ‘All right, we get it, I’m sick of yous going on.’ I wish I didn’t have to talk about this, I wish I didn’t have to get on stage every gig and talk about this.
“The fact is, as long as we’re on stage and as long as nothing is changing, Kneecap will always use this platform and this stage to call out the genocide and the war criminals. I don’t need to lecture you people when your oil fund is being used to fund the genocide.”
Mo Chara also gave a “quick shout-out” to Øyafestivalen for “standing by Kneecap” despite calls for them to be removed from the line-up.
He went on to add that he thinks “it’s a disgrace and a shame that KKR” – a global investment firm that owns Superstruct Entertainment, which runs Øyafestivalen and other international music festivals – “is behind all these festivals. No company investing in Israel while they commit war crimes should be involved in and taking part in music festivals.”
Kneecap has consistently said – including at festivalsCoachellaandGlastonbury– that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, andhave denied accusations of anti-Semitism, claiming that those attacking the band “weaponize” the false accusation to “distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide.”
Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023,multiple UN human-rights experts and UN bodies have stated that Israel’s military actions in Gaza amount to genocide, with the International Court of Justice finding claims of genocide plausible.
Israel rejects the genocide accusationsand denies committing any war crimes, maintaining that its operations are lawful acts of self-defence, claims Kneecap have vocally rebuked.
The band have also found themselves making headlines after footage emerged of memberMo Chara allegedly shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah” and displaying a Hezbollah flag on stage. Chara has sinceappeared in court and been granted unconditional bail;he is due to appear in court again on August 20.
This summer has seen the band dropped from a number of line-ups, includingTRNSMT,Germany’s Hurricane Festival and Southside Festivals, and Cornwall’sEden Project. Last month, it was also confirmed that they had beenbanned from Hungary for three yearsahead of their planned performance atSziget, which would have fallen this weekend (August 9).
Yesterday (August 9), an upcoming Kneecap gig in Vienna was cancelled “due to acute safety concerns” following political pressure from Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).
Earlier this year,Kneecap’s manager spoke out in defence of the band, and said the members “stand on the right side of history” with their pro-Palestine messaging. “Children are starving to death, and we’re spending six or seven days talking about Kneecap,” Lambert said onRTÉ’sPrime Time in April. “We spent less than a day talking about 15 executed medics.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer was amongthe politicians who called for the Irish rap trio to be removed from the line-up for this year’s Glastonbury Festival, andrecently toldNMEwhy he felt the need to speak out.
“Kneecap shouldn’t be performing at Glastonbury, and I don’t support inciting violence as free speech,” he told us. “I think it’s important that we distinguish the issues we all care about and should be spoken about freely on the one hand, and then the incitement to violence on the other. They’re two different things.”
Last month,Kneecap hit back at the government and critics, saying that they “want to make us seem small”.