{"id":99681,"date":"2025-10-26T23:51:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/99681\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T23:51:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T23:51:06","slug":"thom-yorke-would-absolutely-not-perform-in-israel-radiohead-reflect-on-recent-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/99681\/","title":{"rendered":"Thom Yorke Would “Absolutely Not” Perform in Israel, Radiohead Reflect on Recent Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past year, Radiohead<\/a> has faced growing criticism for their past decisions to perform in Israel, as well as for guitarist Jonny Greenwood\u2019s continued collaborations with Israeli musicians and his performances in Tel Aviv even after the country\u2019s invasion of Gaza. As a result, both Greenwood and frontman Thom Yorke have been met with protests. Yorke was notably heckled by a pro-Palestine audience member during a solo concert in Melbourne, Australia, in October 2024, prompting him to briefly walk offstage. Greenwood, meanwhile, recently canceled two UK shows with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa after receiving alleged threats linked to protests against Israel.<\/p>\n

Ahead of their comeback tour in November, Radiohead\u2019s members addressed the controversy \u2014 and their increasingly divergent individual stances on the issue \u2014 in a new interview<\/a> with The Sunday Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Yorke published an extensive statement<\/a> responding to criticism over his reaction \u2014 or perceived lack thereof \u2014 to Israel\u2019s war in Palestine, while condemning what he described as \u201csocial media witch hunts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Video<\/p>\n

Expanding on the subject with\u00a0The Sunday Times, Yorke said, \u201cThis wakes me up at night. They\u2019re telling me what it is that I\u2019ve done with my life, and what I should do next, and that what I think is meaningless. People want to take what I\u2019ve done that means so much to millions of people and wipe me out. But this is not theirs to take from me \u2014 and I don\u2019t consider I\u2019m a bad person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA few times recently I\u2019ve had \u2018Free Palestine!\u2019 shouted at me on the street,\u201d Yorke continued. \u201cI talked to a guy. His shtick was, \u2018You have a platform, a duty and must distance yourself from Jonny.\u2019 But I said, \u2018You and me, standing on the street in London, shouting at each other? Well, the true criminals, who should be in front of the ICC [International Criminal Court], are laughing at us squabbling among ourselves in the public realm and on social media \u2014 while they just carry on with impunity, murdering people.\u2019 It\u2019s an expression of impotency. It\u2019s a purity test, low-level Arthur Miller witch-hunt. I utterly respect the dismay but it\u2019s very odd to be on the receiving end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenwood was also critical of perceived attempt cancel both him and Radiohead. \u201cIt\u2019s the embodiment of the left,\u201d Greenwood told The Sunday Times. \u201cThe left look for traitors, the right for converts and it\u2019s depressing that we are the closest they can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Radiohead guitarist revealed he\u2019s working on a new record with Israeli and Middle Eastern musicians, adding, \u201cAnd it\u2019s nuts I feel frightened to admit that. Yet that feels progressive to me \u2014 booing at a concert does not strike me as brave or progressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cLook, I have been to antigovernment protests in Israel and you cannot move for all the \u2018Fuck Ben-Gvir\u2019 stickers. I spend a lot of time there with family [he is married to an Israeli artist, Sharona Katan] and cannot just say, \u2018I\u2019m not making music with you fuckers because of the government.\u2019 It makes no sense to me. I have no loyalty \u2014 or respect, obviously \u2014 to their government, but I have both for the artists born there.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the possibility of playing another concert in Israel, Yorke was firm in his response: \u201cAbsolutely not. I wouldn\u2019t want to be within 5,000 miles of the Netanyahu regime. But Jonny has roots there, so I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would also politely disagree with Thom,\u201d Greenwood replied. \u201cI would argue that the government is more likely to use a boycott and say, \u2018Everyone hates us \u2014 we should do exactly what we want.\u2019 Which is far more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nuts,\u201d Greenwood added. \u201cThe only thing that I\u2019m ashamed of is that I\u2019ve dragged Thom and the others into this mess \u2014 but I\u2019m not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians. I can\u2019t apologize for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yorke also admitted to being concerned about Radiohead\u2019s upcoming tour being disrupted by protestors. \u201cBut they don\u2019t care about us. It\u2019s about getting something on Instagram of something dramatic happening and, no, I don\u2019t think Israel should do Eurovision. But I don\u2019t think Eurovision should do Eurovision. So what do I know?\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the other members in Radiohead?<\/p>\n

Guitarist Ed O\u2019Brien, who previously posted in support of a Free Palestine on social media, pointed out that Radiohead played Ramallah in the West Bank as well. He added that he was \u201cnot going to judge anybody\u2026 But the brutal truth is that, while we were once all tight, we haven\u2019t really spoken to one another much \u2014 and that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drummer Phil Selway remarked that, \u201cWhat BDS [ Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] are asking of us is impossible. They want us to distance ourselves from Jonny, but that would mean the end of the band and Jonny is coming from a very principled place. But it\u2019s odd to be ostracized by artists we generally felt quite aligned to.\u201d<\/p>\n

And bassist Colin Greenwood recalled the hours after September 11th, when Radiohead were playing a concert in Berlin. [Some Americans in the audience] started to shout at Yorke: \u201cSay something!\u201d Greenwood remembered the singer eventually responded: \u201cWhat do you want me to say?\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in their interview with The Sunday Times<\/a>, the decision to go on hiatus, their impending comeback tour, the possibility of new music, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past year, Radiohead has faced growing criticism for their past decisions to perform in Israel, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-99681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}