Ska-P denounces censorship: the German Police does not let him play one of his songs for “anti-Semitic”

2023-07-17 21:18:40

“Six million Jews annihilated in the most cruel way. / An imperialist genocide by fascist armies, we must learn from history. / The victims have become the executioners, they turn inside out, / Colonizing Palestinian territories, once again violating common sense».

This is how ‘Intifada’ begins, the song that he has not been able to play Ska-P in his last concert in Munich and who talks about the political-armed conflict that Israel and Palestine have maintained since the middle of the last century. The Madrid punk band denounces the “censorship” of the German Police, who issued the notice before their performance at the Tollwood festival: “Two policemen told us before the concert that the song was criminal and if we played it they would stop the concert and they would arrest us all: musicians, technicians and festival organizers. Touch your…”, the group has published on social networks.

Today the Munich prosecutor’s office has not allowed us to play “Intifada”. 2 policemen have told us before the concert that the song was criminal and if we played it they would stop the concert and arrest all of us, musicians, technicians and festival organizers.
Touch your… pic.twitter.com/YCzkXcYn92

— Ska-p (@skapoficial) July 15, 2023

Under this threat, Ska-P decided not to include the song in his set-list, but he did make a speech to protest against the “opulence” of Israel over Palestine, a territory “suffering in exile”, according to the letter of the song. Microphone and chop in hand, the singer Roberto Gañán ‘Pulpul’ read a statement (one person translated it into German) that ended with a “Freedom for Palestine” chanted by the thousands of attendees in the Olympic park. In parallel, another component, Alberto Oriondo alias ‘Txikitin’, who is usually in charge of the performances, waved a large Palestinian flag and covered his mouth with a black tape.

According to ‘El País’, the agents “informed the band of the legal problem before their performance”, according to spokesman Sven Müller, who explained that ‘Intifada’ “could constitute a crime of incitement to hatred” according to the laws German. The “victims” turned into “executioners” referred to by Ska-P are the rulers of Israel, who suffered the genocide of Adolf Hitler’s Germany almost a century ago, a reason from which German law then placed special emphasis on avoid any incitement to hatred or violence against national, racial, religious or ethnic groups. Prison sentences range from three months to five years.

Equating with National Socialism

Although it did not reach Spain, the band from the Vallecas neighborhood saw their concert in Munich endangered after several organizations requested its cancellation (here you can read it). Among them, the Munich Alliance of the Left Against Anti-Semitism. In the letter, the group is accused of being “anti-Semitic, of belonging to the same tradition of National Socialism” and of propagating “conspiracy theories” in relation to another song by Ska-P, ‘Who are you?’, in which it refers to the elite Bilderberg groups as masters of the financial world.

Ska-P has been touring the world for three decades, especially Spain and Latin America, with lyrics with a heavy social edge and tinted with a left-wing ideology in which they have never left a puppet with a head. The group has criticized with their music the conditions of child soldiers, police brutality, sexual abuse by representatives of the Church, the economic crisis, capitalism, bullfights, wars and the monarchy, among others. In addition, it has letters in defense of LGTBI rights, gender equality or the legalization of cannabis. And in honor of their neighborhood, they composed a hymn for Rayo Vallecano. ‘Intifada’, the song that has made everyone talk about them today, belongs to the sixth album, ‘Incontrolable’, which was released in 2004.