{"id":102412,"date":"2025-10-26T19:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/102412\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T19:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:54:07","slug":"thom-yorke-says-radiohead-will-absolutely-not-return-to-israel-and-he-wouldnt-want-to-be-5000-miles-anywhere-near-the-netanyahu-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/102412\/","title":{"rendered":"Thom Yorke says Radiohead will “absolutely not” return to Israel and he “wouldn\u2019t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thom Yorke<\/a> has said Radiohead<\/a> will \u201cabsolutely not\u201d return to Israel and he \u201cwouldn\u2019t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the band encountered a backlash when they played a show in Tel Aviv, Israel<\/a> despite protests urging them to cancel the gig from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as well as criticism from Roger Waters, Thurston Moore, Young Fathers and others<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, Yorke also clashed with a protester during a solo show in Melbourne<\/a>, arguing with an individual from the crowd and storming off stage, before later issuing a lengthy statement explaining his decision<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time he also said: \u201cI think [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in a new interview with The Sunday Times<\/a>, when asked whether he would play in Israel with Radiohead again, he replied: \u201cAbsolutely not. I wouldn\u2019t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime but Jonny [Greenwood]<\/a> has roots there. So I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Radiohead announced their first shows<\/a> in over seven years in September, the BDS argued that the band\u2019s \u201ccomplicit silence\u201d and support of Israeli performers during the \u201cgenocide against Palestinians in Gaza\u201d<\/a> should lead to a boycott of the shows.<\/p>\n

Sharing his thoughts on the matter<\/a>, Yorke said: \u201cThis wakes me up at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\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,\u201d he added. \u201cPeople 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 \u2013 and I don\u2019t consider I\u2019m a bad person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonny Greenwood, meanwhile, has come in for criticism for making records with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa<\/a>, and saw two UK gigs with Tassa cancelled earlier this year<\/a> after protesters called for a boycott. Greenwood, who is married to an Israeli artist, also played with Tassa in Tel Aviv last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Greenwood described the backlash as \u201cthe embodiment of the left\u201d, adding: \u201cThe left look for traitors, the right for converts and it\u2019s depressing that we are the closest they can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revealing that he is currently working on a record with Israeli and Middle Eastern musicians, he continued: \u201cAnd it\u2019s nuts I feel frightened to admit that. Yet that feels progressive to me \u2013 booing at a concert does not strike me as brave or progressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cI spend a lot of time there with family 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 \u2013 or respect, obviously \u2013 to their government, but I have both for the artists born there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the subject of whether he would play in Israel again he said: \u201cI would also politely disagree with Thom. I would argue that the government is more likely to use a boycott and say, \u2018Everyone hates us \u2013 we should do exactly what we want.\u2019 Which is far more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nuts,\u201d he added. \u201cThe only thing that I\u2019m ashamed of is that I\u2019ve dragged Thom and the others into this mess \u2013 but I\u2019m not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians. I can\u2019t apologise for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guitarist Ed O\u2019Brien<\/a>, meanwhile, had his say on the issue, claiming: \u201cWe should have played Ramallah in the West Bank as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not going to judge anybody,\u201d he said in reference to his bandmates\u2019 stances. \u201cBut the brutal truth is that, while we were once all tight, we haven\u2019t really spoken to one another much \u2013 and that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drummer Philip Selway<\/a> added: \u201cWhat BDS 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 ostracised by artists we generally felt quite aligned to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the interview, they confirmed that their forthcoming shows will be played in the round<\/a>, and they revealed that they have whittled down their back catalogue to a shortlist of approximately 65 tracks, which Greenwood said they are \u201call frantically learning\u201d.<\/p>\n

They also revealed whether fans can expect new material from the band after they play their UK and European dates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Radiohead are returning to the stage for the first time in over seven years in the coming weeks, with four-night residencies in each of Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin<\/a> set to take place between November 4 and December 12. All of the tickets sold out very quickly<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thom Yorke has said Radiohead will \u201cabsolutely not\u201d return to Israel and he \u201cwouldn\u2019t want to be 5,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,591,111,139,69,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-102412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-indie","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}