Thom Yorke Blasts “Offensive” Radiohead Israel Controversy
Thom Yorke has dismissed calls for Radiohead to cancel an upcoming concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, calling the backlash “patronizing” and “offensive.” Speaking to Rolling Stone, Yorke said, “It’s deeply disrespectful to assume that we’re either being misinformed or that we’re so retarded we can’t make these decisions ourselves.” In April, the band were petitioned by numerous artists and activists (including Thurston Moore, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, and Roger Waters) to “think again” about their performance. “Please do what artists did in South Africa’s era of oppression: stay away, until apartheid is over,” the letter read. As well as the concert, the petition pushed for Yorke to cancel a speech at an Israeli university.
Yorke cited J.K. Rowling and Noam Chomsky as other public figures who disagree with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel. “There are people I admire [who have been critical of the concert] like [English film director] Ken Loach, who I would never dream of telling where to work or what to do or think,” he said. “It’s really upsetting that artists I respect think we are not capable of making a moral decision ourselves after all these years. They talk down to us and I just find it mind-boggling that they think they have the right to do that.”
He called the reaction to his scheduled university speech a “head fuck”:
It’s like, really? You can’t go talk to other people who want to learn stuff in another country? Really? The one place where you need to be free to express everything you possibly can. You want to tell these people you can’t do that? And you think that’s gonna help?
Yorke continued:
The person who knows most about these things is Jonny [Greenwood]. He has both Palestinian and Israeli fans and a wife who’s an Arab-Israeli. All these people to stand there at a distance throwing stuff at us, waving flags, saying, “You don’t know anything about it!” Imagine how offensive that is for Jonny. And imagine how upsetting that it’s been to have this out there. Just to assume that we know nothing about this. Just to throw the word “apartheid” around and think that’s enough. It’s fucking weird. It’s such an extraordinary waste of energy. Energy that could be used in a more positive way.
Yorke also singled out Roger Waters, whose condemnation of the concert is particularly pointed, given that Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich is producing his new album. “Imagine how this has affected me and Nigel’s relationship,” Yorke said. “Thanks, Roger. I mean, [Nigel and I are] best mates for life, but it’s like, fuck me, really?”
Yorke concluded, “Now if you’re talking about trying to make things progress in any society, if you create division, what do you get? You get fucking Theresa May. You get [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, you get fucking Trump. That’s divisive.”
The show is set to take place at Park HaYarkon on July 19.
Last year, producer Brian Eno barred an Israeli dance company from using his music in a performance after it was revealed that the performance was being sponsored by the Israeli embassy. Pink Floyd’s Waters signed a petition in November asking the Chemical Brothers to withdraw from performing in Tel Aviv. The Radiohead petition also includes signatures from writer Geoff Dyer, actor Maxine Peake, director Ian Rickson, and more.
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