An organisation IDF, has conscription laws, requires that all citizens of Israel, except those who qualify for the exemptions from service, to service in the various branches of the IDF. Section 2 defines the age appropriate for conscription, and set it at 18–29 years of age for men, and 18–26 for women, based on the Hebrew calendar. However, recruitment may begin at age 17 if the parents or guardians of the recruit allow it.
So the Vylan is singing or shouting the equivalent to calling for the death of every single Israeli Jew' due to conscription laws by repeatedly saying DEATH DEATH to the IDF.
The whole controversy around Bob Vylan and Lucy Connelly is manufactured and deliberately stoked to further clamp down on free speech and expression in my opinion, HB. It also distracts from the much wider agenda of authoritarian censorship and, not accidentally, gives more impetus to further restrictions. It should be possible to support Bob Vylan's right to free speech as well as opposing the Lucy Connelly sentencing whether you agree with their sentiments or not.
People are free to believe that Bob Vylan's "Death to the IDF" chant crosses some sort of undefined line but their belief should not be imposed upon everyone else. Likewise with Lucy Connelly. The IDF, conscripts or not, are free to refuse illegal orders and in fact many have. The notion of "only following orders" somehow making them exempt from their crimes is a long ago discredited defence. Would, "Death, Death to the Waffen SS" have been unacceptable in early 1945? Should sharing and repeating of the sentiment of the tweet linked below lead to prosecution?
https://x.com/DrLoupis__/status/1941478774920577295 Whilst the media and politicians take up sides on the rights of expression based on ideology rather than reason, we shouldn't fall into the same trap. Whatever your political stance and beliefs, free speech is not a left/right issue. Without freedom of speech, there is no freedom of thought; without freedom of thought there is no freedom. Speech should never be policed by government or authoritarian diktat, it should remain policed by us, as it has always been. All of this concocted row has allowed the government to use "Anti terrorism legislation" to proscribe Palestine Action who vandalised a plane belonging to a PFI company tracing back to the Cayman Islands. The plane was being leased to the RAF. It wasn't an exclusive deal, as it was leased to other entities, apart from the RAF. It is now illegal to post support for Palestine Action.
Lucy Connelly should not have been prosecuted let alone jailed, Bob Vylan should be free to chant Death to the IDF, an organisation that gleefully posts their atrocities on social media and are genociding, by their own admission, the Palestinian population. Palestine Action should not be a proscribed terror group. We should be able to post support for any or all of the above without fear.
