Bob Vylan has responded to the uproar over its “death to the IDF” comments at the Glastonbury festival with a statement that doubles down on the artist’s pro-Palestinian position, albeit with less inflamed language and more explanatory context than was found in their concert chant.

We, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story,” Bobby and Bobbie Vylan say.

The State Department revoked the visas of the British punk-rap duo that led a chant of “death to the IDF” at a popular music festival in England.