British band Massive Attack sparked a wave of criticism after screening a video of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a live performance at a festival near Manchester.
The footage was part of a digital collage titled "Open the Doors to the Merchants of Death," which the band describes as a broader protest against global injustices.
The segment in question, originally released by the IDF in 2023, shows Sinwar and his family hiding in Gaza tunnels on October 10, just days after Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Sinwar is widely recognized as the mastermind behind the massacre and has led the Hamas organization for years.
Massive Attack, long known for its criticism of Israel and support for the BDS movement, faced a fierce backlash online. One user wrote: “Very disappointing. I tried to separate the art from the artist, but some things can't be forgotten or forgiven.”
Another added: “This is terrifying. They’re normalizing terror and terrorists. I hope the police investigate.” Others called the band members “disgusting pigs” and “vile,” while some fans expressed deep disappointment: “They’re not even pretending to hide behind ‘social justice’—they’re glorifying a terrorist leader.” Another comment read: “I love their music, but it’s hard to listen to it now, given their twisted political views.”
In response to the outrage, Massive Attack issued a statement rejecting the accusations, claiming the footage had been taken out of context and misrepresented for political purposes: “Massive Attack categorically reject any suggestion that footage or reportage used as part of an artistic digital collage in our live show seeks to glorify or celebrate any featured subject.”
The band explained that the Sinwar video appears within a wider digital array that covers topics such as war, corporate greed, climate crisis and exploitation in the global south, presented alongside a range of controversial political figures from history and the present.
“To isolate a single section of reportage from the artistic context within which it sits… is tantamount to a willful device to create conditions for misinterpretation or distortion.”
Addressing the Sinwar segment specifically, the band said the footage was juxtaposed with scenes from Jean Cocteau’s film "Orpheus," creating a tone of “horrified lament” and criticism of individuals in power: “That an individual of power can take people down into hell.” They argued that the collage also includes figures such as Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and J. Edgar Hoover, and even IDF soldiers from the same footage set as the Sinwar clip, asking rhetorically whether the inclusion of those figures would also be interpreted as acts of glorification.
“Unfortunately, the only reasonable conclusion is that this level of deliberate context removal, and such a leap of misinterpretation, has political motivations.”
The band also stated that artists who speak out against Israeli war crimes, apartheid and in defense of Palestinian rights are regularly targeted with “spurious attempts” to discredit and silence them: “These spurious attempts will always fail.”
Massive Attack’s response may not appease critics, but it makes clear the band sees the backlash as part of a broader political effort to suppress their activism.
