Bob Vylan wins ‘substantial damages’ over Nazi salute allegation

Bob Vylan has “secured a full apology and substantial damages” following an article in the Manchester Evening News (MEN) which accused the singer of throwing a Nazi salute.

Shout out ⁦@RahmanLowe⁩ for helping take action against Reach plc and ⁦⁦@ManchesterEven⁩ after their defamatory article, resulting in an apology and a settlement. We will continue to fight for what we believe in and we will not be silenced✊🏾 https://t.co/aBVNam3IGy

— Bob Vylan (@BobbyVylan) November 7, 2025

Vylanised

Rahman Lowe Solicitors secured the successful result for the Bob Vylan frontman (real name Pascal Robinson). This is what Rahman Lowe said following the resolution:

The article, published on 6 October 2025 under the headline “Jewish leaders and MPs ‘deeply concerned’ over Bob Vylan gig in Manchester,” falsely stated that Mr Robinson had “performed Nazi salutes on stage” whilst performing for Bob Vylan. This allegation is entirely false. In reality, Bob Vylan opens every performance with a guided light stretching and meditation routine, which is clearly introduced to the audience, who are invited and encouraged to participate.

As part of this practice, Mr Pascal and his bandmate raise their left arm directly upward towards the sky in a reaching motion, a sun salutation, while placing their right hand over their heart. The movement is performed while facing each of the four corners of the room, symbolically connecting with the entire audience. It bears no resemblance in form, intention, or context to any fascist salute. This ritual has been an integral part of Bob Vylan’s live performances for several years.

Robinson added:

To have something rooted in mindfulness, peace and connection distorted into a symbol of hate was both painful and outrageous. Our art has always stood against oppression in all its forms: racism, fascism, and discrimination. We will never stop using our platform to speak truth to power.

We are grateful to our legal team at Rahman Lowe for defending our integrity and setting the record straight. The truth matters, and we’re glad it’s now been recognised. Now that this matter has been resolved, we are looking forward to concentrating on our current UK tour.

Bob Vilan — Smear me not

The maligned Zionist pressure group ‘StopAntisemitism’ accused Robinson of performing a Nazi salute in July. As you can see in the video below, if this had been a Nazi salute, it would have been the most vertical ‘Heil Hitler’ in history:

Bob Vylan (legal name Pascal Robinson-Foster) called for the death of the IDF at @glastonbury

Today, he performed Nazi salutes on a stage in Athens, Greece as a Palestinian flag hung behind him on stage. pic.twitter.com/XS5hDGUNsT

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 5, 2025

We reckon Robinson would have got 0/10 if he’d thrown this at Dar Nazi competition.

If you’re wondering why people don’t take StopAntisemitism seriously, the following apology from MEN parent company Reach plc demonstrates what happens to outlets who buy into this sort of lazy propaganda without doing due diligence:

Our article “Jewish leaders and MPs ‘deeply concerned’ over Bob Vylan gig in Manchester” (October 6) included a statement that the band Bob Vylan had “performed Nazi salutes on stage”.

The band’s singer, Pascal Robinson, has informed us – and we accept – that the gesture in question was in fact a sun salutation, performed by him as part of “guided light stretching and meditation” at the start of all Bob Vylan shows.

We are happy to correct the record and apologise to Mr Robinson, and Bob Vylan, for the error

Heily unlikely

Nazi salutes have been a key topic of interest since the Elon Musk incident:

The @ADL said Elon Musk’s Nazi salute was no biggie. https://t.co/1E43iUP91B pic.twitter.com/R5U6Ao8JML

— Chuck Schumer voted for Andrew Cuomo. Primary him. (@basspankai) November 5, 2025

Following Musk’s struggle, right-wingers have attempted to muddy the waters by suggesting every wave, stretch, or reach could be a Nazi salute. As their own memes demonstrate, however, there is a clear difference between what Musk did and what others have done:

always really funny when rightwingers try to do this because every time it’s a reminder of just how obviously what elon musk did was in fact a nazi salute https://t.co/QU0WL2A3rA pic.twitter.com/7enQMGgMQy

— onion person (@CantEverDie) November 5, 2025

I don’t know how to explain to people how these are so clearly different

Like; the videos are side by side here and you can see how Elon’s is a deliberate Nazi salute and Zohran’s is a gentle wave https://t.co/R3sgJM511n

— Mike 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@SpideyInTARDIS) November 8, 2025

There is not, however, a clear difference between what Musk did and what Nazis do:

I don’t think we can share the side-by-side of Elon Musk doing the Nazi salute next to Nazis doing the Nazi salute enough. pic.twitter.com/2TpcUDPWwf

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) January 22, 2025

To be fair to Musk, he is a complete fucking idiot, so maybe he didn’t realise the gesture was a Nazi salute. Stranger things have happened, after all, like when Musk did all this:

Elon Musk has been retweeting prominent race scientist adherents on his platform X, spreading misinformation about racial minorities’ intelligence and physiology to his audience of 176.3 million followers. https://t.co/FIeJ3NAYJA

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) September 1, 2024

And also this:

“The X algorithm prioritises sending new users right-wing leaning content”, a Sky News Data and Forensics investigation reveals.

In this report, Sky’s @Chesh explains how Elon Musk’s X is boosting the British right.

🔗https://t.co/r4Ay11hwdL pic.twitter.com/Y6kToVf5lx

— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 6, 2025

Vylan for Victory

Since Israel launched its genocide, the country’s Zionist supporters have gone into overdrive smearing their opponents. In the course of that, a lot of shit has been stirred and a lot of muck has been spread. By now, it should be obvious to anyone that you have to take these accusations with an iceberg-sized pinch of salt, and yet supposedly serious news organisations keep making the same mistakes.

It’s no wonder the British public have so little faith in the British media.

Featured image via 3voor12 (YouTube) / Lily & Moon (Wikimedia)