Bob Vylan’s Monday Nijmegen show can go ahead, judges rule

Bob Vylan on stage in Amsterdam. Photo: Brandon Hartley

Monday night’s Nijmegen show by British punk rap combo Bob Vylan can go ahead, despite calls for its cancellation from Jewish rights group CJO, judges said after an emergency court hearing.

The CJO went to court in an effort to have the performance banned, 48 hours after controversy erupted over the group’s last show in Amsterdam. But judges said on Monday afternoon that the concert can continue as planned. Its reasoning will be published in two weeks time.

Nijmegen concert hall Doornroosje said in a statement on its website that it had been “overwhelmed by the scale of outrage that has arisen in response to Bob Vylan’s show in Paradiso last Saturday”, but it was not prepared to engage in “cultural censorship”.

Another venue, 013 in Tilburg, cancelled Bob Vylan’s show on Tuesday after the duo chanted “death to the IDF” and referred to the right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead in Utah last week, as a “piece of shit”.

In particular, the CJO accused the band of “calling for a pogrom on the streets of Amsterdam. “Vylan called for “kicking them in the face, finding them on street”.  These are unacceptable statements,” the CJO said.

In edited footage later released by the organisation, Bob Vylan is heard to say “fuck the Zionists” and “go find them and meet them on the street and let them know you don’t fucking stand by them.”

Meanwhile, the Dutch public prosecution department said it is looking at dozens of complaints made about the language used at the Amsterdam concert to assess if offences were committed.

Amsterdam’s Paradiso venue has said it will cooperate fully with any formal investigation.

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