Radiohead frontman slams boycott stance
THOM YORKE, the Radiohead frontman, has condemned attempts to stop the band performing in Israel as “patronising and distressing”.
Supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, including Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd band member, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and film directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, signed a letter calling for a concert, due to take place in July, to be cancelled.
They said it would be “one small step to help pressure Israel to end its violation of basic rights and international law”.
Mr Yorke, who has also been invited to give a university lecture while in Israel, said: “This has been extremely upsetting. There’s an awful lot of people who don’t agree with the BDS movement, including us”.
He told Rolling Stone: “There are people I admire like Ken Loach, who I would never dream of telling where to work or what to do or think. The kind of dialogue that they want to engage in is one that’s black or white. I have a problem with that.
“It’s deeply distressing that they choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw s*** at us in public. “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. I thought it was patronising in the extreme.”
The singer noted that Sharona Katan, wife of band-member Jonny Greenwood, is Israeli.
“All these people stand there at a distance throwing stuff at us, waving flags, saying: ‘You don’t know anything about it’,” he said. “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 f***ing weird. It’s such an extraordinary waste of energy, energy that could be used in a more positive way”. In response, Mr Waters described Mr Yorke as angry, and said he had “misinterpreted my attempt to start a conversation as a threat”.