The State Department announced Monday that it revoked visas for a British rap group after it called for the death of Israeli soldiers onstage over the weekend.
Members of the Bob Vylan band no longer can travel to the U.S. “in light of their hateful tirade … including leading the crowd in death chants” at a Saturday music festival in the U.K., Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a Monday X post. The State Department’s action aligns with the Trump administration’s policy of renewed scrutiny of foreigners’ visas over alleged hostility toward American values or national security.
The @StateDept has revoked the US visas for the members of the Bob Vylan band in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chants. Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.
— Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) June 30, 2025
“Foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country,” Landau said.
Bob Vylan did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. The group was scheduled to perform in the U.S. during a music tour that begins in October, The Standard reported.
The band’s frontman, Pascal Robinson-Foster, led an audience in anti-Israel chants such as “death, death to the IDF” — referring to the Israel Defense Forces — at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England on Saturday, the BBC reported.
The group’s performance sparked widespread backlash, and the festival said it was “appalled” in a Sunday statement.
“Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the Festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence,” the festival said.
Robinson-Foster called for “a change in foreign policy” in a Sunday Instagram post that seemed to address the controversy. “Let them see us marching in the streets, campaigning on the ground level, organising and shouting about it on any and every stage that we are offered,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January requiring that foreigners on visas “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.” The Trump administration has since revoked numerous student and faculty visas over alleged support for foreign terrorist groups such as Hamas.
The State Department referred the DCNF to statements made by spokesperson Tammy Bruce at a Monday press briefing.
“This was a very public event that violated … that very basic standard about the nature of who we want to let into the country,” Bruce told reporters.
“Every sovereign nation has a right to decide who’s going to come to this country,” Bruce said.
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