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On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists murdered nearly 400 people at the Nova music festival, in a field in the desert in southern Israel. They kidnapped dozens more, taking them as hostages to Gaza, where they were tortured, sexually assaulted, and starved.
Nearly one-third of the victims of October 7 were killed at the festival. Most of them were young people who believed in peace, love and coexistence — just like the fans who flock to Coachella.
So it was beyond outrageous that The Strokes aired an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas video during their set at Coachella this weekend.
The video showed the demolition of Al-Israa University in Gaza, described as the “last university standing in Gaza.”
Actually, the incident displays the high moral standard upheld by the Israeli military.
The university was demolished in January 2024, just a few months into the intense fighting in Gaza.
Following criticism, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigated the demolition. It found that Hamas had “used the building and its surroundings for military activity.”
Under international law, that means the university was a legitimate target.
However, the IDF also reprimanded the officer who ordered the demolition, saying he had not followed proper approval procedures.
The IDF showed that it is committed to holding its own leaders responsible for following the letter of the law.
None of that comes across in a short video clip calculated to inflame opinions.
And of course, The Strokes did not bother to show video footage of Hamas terrorists massacring civilians at the Nova festival. They did not show Hamas firing into port-a-potty toilets to kill whoever was inside. They did not show festival-goers running for their lives. They did not show young people in trance gear pleading with terrorists to spare their lives.
That would have been too disturbing for a Coachella audience. And it would have complicated the simplistic, virtue-signaling theatrics that The Strokes tried to indulge.
Many critics of The Strokes said that they should have left politics out of their music set.
After all, one of the biggest hits at this year’s Coachella was David Lee Roth, the aging rocker who made a cameo appearance with Teddy Swims. He sang “Jump,” a Van Halen hit from the 1984 album. Pure eighties nostalgia, pure Southern California, pure fun.
Yes, sometimes, great art is political.
But “political” does not have to be one-sided — and what a side The Strokes chose.
English (US)