Jewish leaders in Britain have refused to meet Kanye West after the rapper offered to take part in talks ahead of his headline slot at Wireless Festival following backlash over his antisemitic comments.
Government ministers and Jewish groups have said organisers of the London festival should be “ashamed” for inviting the US rapper to headline all three days after he made a series of antisemitic statements last year. This included releasing a song called Heil Hitler and advertising a swastika T-shirt for sale on his website.
As tickets for the three Finsbury Park concerts went on sale, West said he would like to speak directly to the UK’s Jewish community following calls for him to be banned from the UK because of his behaviour.
But the Jewish Leadership Council rejected the offer almost immediately, telling organisers they would not help “save their festival”.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), they said: “Kanye West’s recent history of vile antisemitism was fully known to the festival organisers when they invited him. Now, with the entirely predictable backlash they are facing, the British Jewish community is being asked to help save their festival. We are not going to meet Kanye West for that purpose.”
Wes Streeting said organisers of the festival in Finsbury Park should be “ashamed” after they “showed a terrible error of judgement” by booking West to perform.
The health secretary told Sky News: “These weren’t a couple of off-colour remarks, these were a pattern of behaviour,” he said. “The releasing of a song called Heil Hitler, the plastering of that slogan across T-shirts, then using bipolar disorder as an excuse.
“And then when he realised the impact on his fame and his career, he came out with a mealy-mouthed apology, which has now been given a fig leaf of credibility by festival organisers who should be ashamed of themselves. So I’m appalled, actually.”
Ministers are reviewing West’s permission to enter the UK after Sir Keir Starmer called the decision to allow him to headline “deeply concerning”.
Downing Street on Tuesday said that “all options remain on the table”, adding that decisions would be taken on a “case-by-case basis, in line with the law” amid the backlash.
Despite calls to reconsider the booking from Jewish groups and major sponsors who have withdrawn their support, the festival defended its decision on Monday.
Melvin Benn, managing director at Festival Republic, which promotes Wireless Festival, said West’s comments were “abhorrent”, but said he was “not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature”.
Describing himself as a “person of forgiveness”, Mr Benn said: “He is intended to come in and perform. We are not giving him a platform to extol opinion of whatever nature, only to perform the songs that are currently played on the radio stations in our country and the streaming platforms in our country and listened to and enjoyed by millions.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday that West has an approved visa to come to the UK, which was “issued in the last few days”.
“He has a visa already issued to appear, to come into the country, and the home secretary may well rescind that today, I don’t know,” he said. “If she does, she does, and then the issue is over in terms of his appearance.”
The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, said it was “time for Wireless to do the decent thing and rescind an invitation they never should have offered”.
Breaking his silence on the row on Tuesday, West offered to meet the British Jewish community to listen to their concerns.
He said in a statement. “My only goal is to come to London and present a show of change, bringing unity, peace, and love through my music. I would be grateful for the opportunity to meet with members of the Jewish community in the UK in person, to listen.
“I know words aren’t enough – I’ll have to show change through my actions. If you’re open, I’m here.”
Mr Benn also told Today that organisers had reached out to Jewish communities “over the last couple of days” about meeting West, but they had refused.
Asked whether he should have done it earlier when organisers were making a decision, Mr Benn said: “Potentially we should have done and that may prove to be a mistake that we’ve made.”
Pepsi and Diageo have withdrawn their sponsorship of the festival and PayPal, which is a payment partner for the annual rap and hip-hop festival, will not appear in any of its future promotional materials.
In January, West took out a full-page advert in the Wall Street Journal to apologise, titled: “To Those I’ve Hurt.”
“I am not a Nazi or an antisemite,” it said. “I love Jewish people.”
He said his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month-long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behaviour that destroyed my life”.
Mr Streeting said Mr West’s use of bipolar disorder to justify his actions was “appalling”, adding: “I would ask people to consider, does using bipolar disorder as an excuse to write and release a song called Heil Hitler and plaster it across T-shirts, does bipolar disorder really justify that? Or is it an excuse to justify rotten behaviour?”
Meanwhile, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf said West’s antisemitic songs were “deeply troubling”, but said the condemnation of his headline slot “is absolutely a bandwagon that’s being jumped on”.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned against banning West from coming into the UK, but said he “wouldn’t recommend anyone buys a ticket”.
“I worry where that ends up, if Keir Starmer was to ban people coming into Britain, with whose views he doesn’t like, almost everybody wouldn’t be allowed in. I think it’s a dangerous path to go down.”
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