Jewish leaders in the United Kingdom expressed outrage this weekend over antisemitic chants led by artists at a flagship music festival that was broadcast live on British public television, but the community has long been warning of an alarming rise in hate crimes since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Even before Saturday’s performance by British rap-pop duo Bob Vylan — in which the singer chanted “Death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” — Jews in Britain have said they no longer feel welcome, citing government inaction in addressing antisemitism. 

“Bob Vylan’s chant didn’t come from an empty space,” David Collier, an independent investigative journalist, told Fox News Digital.

It also condemned Glastonbury Festival, saying “its professed commitment to ‘peace, unity, respect and hope’ rings hollow when its stage is used to promote chants calling for death.”

“What happened at Glastonbury is a symptom of a sickness in British society,” said Nicole Lampert, a U.K.-based journalist and activist against antisemitism. “For me, and I say this with great sadness as a Brit and also as someone who spent many years as an entertainment journalist, this starts with the BBC.”

A boy, wearing a kippah, holds the British flag at a march against antisemitism after an increase in the U.K., during a temporary truce between the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Israel, in London on Nov. 26, 2023. (REUTERS/Susannah Ireland)

Lampert said the BBC, which Britons pay for via their taxes, offers “very little nuance in the reporting” of the conflicts in the Middle East. 

“There are meant to be rules in place which means that the BBC and its journalists are strictly neutral, but social media has shown that to be a lie,” she said, adding “every day on every Jewish group I’m on, someone is saying ‘I can’t stay here.’”

In a post on X, Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli urged British Jews to “leave the country.” 

“The BBC has a long history of severe bias against Israel, but today a dark line was crossed by broadcasting calls for the murder of IDF soldiers,” he wrote, adding that “when such incitement is normalized, those who fail to act, those who do nothing to stop it, bear responsibility for the blood of Jews and Israelis living in Britain.” 

Like the prime minister, the BBC belatedly released a statement saying it “should have pulled” the livestream of the performance and that Vylan’s performance contained “utterly unacceptable” and “antisemitic sentiments.”

“Millions of people tuned in to enjoy Glastonbury this weekend across the BBC’s output, but one performance within our live streams included comments that were deeply offensive,” the BBC said.

The British government did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital questions.