Photo credit: pitchfork.com
During a recent solo concert in Melbourne, Australia, Thom Yorke, the lead singer of Radiohead and the Smile, interrupted his performance following a heckling incident from a member of the audience vocalizing pro-Palestine sentiments. Video clips from the event depict a man shouting about the casualties from the ongoing conflict in Gaza and demanding to know, “How could you be silent?” As reported, Israel’s military actions in Gaza have reportedly resulted in over 43,000 Palestinian fatalities, according to statistics from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
In response to the outburst, Yorke can be seen in additional footage challenging the heckler to approach the stage and express his grievances directly, saying, “Come up on the fucking stage and say what you want to say. Don’t stand there like a coward.” He further emphasized, “You want to piss on everybody’s night? Come on. OK, you do, see you later.” After this confrontation, Yorke left the stage briefly before returning to perform Radiohead’s well-known track “Karma Police.” Setlist details confirm this setlist choice.
Previously, Yorke and Radiohead faced significant backlash in 2017 for their decision to play in Israel. At the time, Yorke responded to critics by stating that performing in a country did not equate to endorsing its government, saying, “We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments, some more liberal than others. As we have in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”
Additionally, Jonny Greenwood, Yorke’s bandmate in both Radiohead and the Smile, has defended his recent collaborations with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa. This defense comes amid accusations from the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which claimed he was “artwashing genocide” by performing alongside Tassa in Tel Aviv during the ongoing conflict.
Greenwood, whose spouse is the Israeli artist Sharona Katan, released the album Jarak Qaribak with Tassa last year. In his remarks, Greenwood asserted that “no art is as ‘important’ as stopping all the death and suffering around us.” He argued for the importance of engagement, asserting, “But doing nothing seems a worse option. And silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel doesn’t seem like any way to reach an understanding between the two sides of this apparently endless conflict.”
Source
pitchfork.com