Dua Lipa drops agent over campaign against pro-Palestine group Kneecap

British popstar Dua Lipa has parted ways with her agent David Levy after he campaigned to stop pro-Palestinian Irish rap group Kneecap from performing at Glastonbury festival. 

Levy, who works for the global talent agency William Morris Endeavour (WME), was the first signatory to an email sent to Glastonbury organisers, including Emily Eavis, accusing Kneecap of expressing support for "two banned terrorist organisations", Hamas and Hezbollah, at Coachella festival in April.

"Whilst we all support free speech, we cannot accept it when it drifts into whipping up hateful rhetoric that is essentially denying Israel's right to exist," the email read. 

In response, the popstar dropped Levy. "Dua made sure through her people that David Levy wasn't working on her music any more. She is very openly pro-Palestine and that doesn't align with David. She views him as being a supporter of Israel's war in Gaza," a music industry source told the Mail on Sunday.

Lipa, the daughter of Kosovan Albanian parents, is a vocal supporter of Palestinian liberation. "The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza," she posted on Instagram in May 2024. 

In May this year, she was among hundreds of artists to call on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to end UK arms sales to Israel. 

A music industry source told Middle East Eye that Levy, who was also Massive Attack's agent before the pro-Palestine Bristol group parted ways with him, "was the main person leading the charge to get Kneecap cancelled at Glastonbury". 

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The email Levy and others sent to the festival's organisers was intended to be confidential but was leaked by a Glastonbury employee, the source said. Another signatory to the email "had to step back at his record label and lost a couple of deals with new artists", who peceived him to be staunchly pro-Israel. 

"All these people signed it thinking it was going to stay anonymous," the source said. MEE understands that Dua Lipa is now working with a different agent at WME. The agency has not responded to a request for comment.

Levy also signed a letter entitled "Israel Under Attack", on 12 October 2023, five days after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, calling on the "entertainment community to speak out forcefully against Hamas" and to "support Israel".

One British Jewish entertainment industry worker told MEE that defending Israel was becoming an increasingly marginal position among his colleagues. 

"There are still a few people who can't seem to accept that Israel has completely lost the plot," they said. "They're working with Dua Lipa but pretty much the only place you'll find people aligned with them are at Jewish Chronicle fundraisers and Tory shindigs." 

In a case like Dua Lipa's, the agency doesn't lose any money but the agent, who receives a commission for working with their artists, suffers financially. 

Over 65,000 people have been killed by Israel in the course of its genocide in Gaza.