Kneecap to play Paris concert in defiance of objections

Irish rap group Kneecap, one of whose members faces a British terror charge for allegedly supporting Palestine, are to perform outside Paris on Sunday, despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.

The local authorities have also withdrawn their subsidies for the music festival where the trio will play -- the annual Rock en Seine festival, held in the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud -- after organisers kept the controversial band on the programme for their slot from 1630 GMT.

Strongly backing the Palestinian cause and bitterly criticising Israel, the group from Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, have turned concerts into political events.

Liam O'Hanna, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged in England in May accused of displaying a flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah during a London concert in November.

They played a closely scrutinised concert at the Glastonbury Festival in June, where Chara declared: "Israel are war criminals."

The group later missed playing at the Sziget Festival in Budapest after being barred from entering the country by the Hungarian authorities, a close ally of Israel.

Kneecap, who also focus on Irish republicanism, are controversial within the UK and Ireland, more than two-and-a-half-decades after the peace agreement that aimed to end the conflict over the status of Northern Ireland.

The group takes its name from the deliberate shooting of the limbs, known as "kneecapping", carried out by Irish Republicans as punishment attacks during the decades of unrest.

Agence France-Presse