Radiohead’s reunion tour is under fire from BDS for Jonny Greenwood’s collaboration with an Israeli musician.
After a seven-year silence, British rock legends Radiohead have unleashed a new tour announcement, but their triumphant return is already being overshadowed by a vicious new front in the culture wars. Pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists are now demanding a full-scale boycott of the band, accusing them of “complicit silence” and condemning guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s collaboration with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the BDS movement wasted no time, launching their attack the same day the tour was announced, claiming Greenwood “crossed our peaceful picket line during Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” The group’s fury stems from Greenwood’s latest musical project, a joint album with Tassa titled Jarak Qaribak, which reinterprets Middle Eastern love songs with a message of cross-cultural unity. The album, released in 2023, features musicians from across the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Greenwood has been defiant in the face of this pressure. He performed with Tassa in Tel Aviv in May 2024 and has publicly defended his work as a valuable effort to bridge divides. “I think an artistic project that combines Arab and Jewish musicians is worthwhile,” he stated, adding that “silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel doesn’t seem like any way to reach an understanding.” This isn’t the first time BDS has targeted the duo; in May of this year, BDS took credit for the cancellation of two of their UK shows, forcing them off the stage.
The band’s frontman, Thom Yorke, has a long history of clashing with anti-Israel activists. In 2017, ahead of a Radiohead concert in Tel Aviv, a letter signed by dozens of artists—including the notorious Roger Waters—urged the band to cancel the show. Yorke famously fired back, calling the boycott calls “an extraordinary waste of energy” and stating, “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing the government.” The band ultimately performed the sold-out show.
The issue resurfaced last October when Yorke walked off stage during a solo concert in Melbourne after being heckled by a protester who shouted, “How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza?” Yorke, visibly frustrated, ended the performance. In a later statement, he condemned both Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing his frustration that his silence was interpreted as complicity and reaffirming his stance against “any form of extremism or dehumanization of others.”
