Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa pan censorship after UK shows canceled
Longtime musical collaborators says they were forced to call off concerts due to credible threats on the venues and audiences
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Israeli musician Dudu Tassa, longtime musical collaborators, pushed back Tuesday against the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement after the duo canceled two June shows in the United Kingdom.
Greenwood, Tassa and their ensemble were set to perform at Bristol’s Beacon on June 23 and London’s Hackney Church on June 25, but both gigs were canceled in recent days.
The BDS movement claimed the cancellations as a victory, reiterating its “call for all venues to refuse to program this complicit event that can only artwash genocide” after the second gig was canceled.
Greenwood, the lead guitarist and keyboardist for English band Radiohead and Tassa, an Israeli rock musician who leads Dudu Tassa & the Kuwaitis, clarified in a detailed response that they canceled the shows due to credible threats on the venues and audiences.
“Forcing musicians not to perform and denying people who want to hear them an opportunity to do so is self-evidently a method of censorship and silencing,” wrote Tassa and Greenwood, posting their response on social media. “Intimidating venues into pulling our shows won’t help achieve the peace and justice everyone in the Middle East deserves.”
The duo pointed out that their latest tour features singers from Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq, with ancestral and musical roots from across the Middle East, including Yemen and Turkey, and a shared love of Arabic song.
The musicians said that the organizers of the BDS campaign, who claim that stopping the concerts isn’t censorship, “can’t have it both ways.”
“This project has always had a difficult, narrow channel to navigate,” they wrote. “We find ourselves in the odd position of being condemned by both ends of the political spectrum.”
The artists also referred to recent statements from fellow musicians supporting Irish hip-hop band Kneecap, which received wide support amid an ongoing police investigation.
Kneecap had some of its shows canceled following band members’ provocative statements that appeared to support Hamas and Hezbollah and the murders of two British parliament members.
“We have no judgment to pass on Kneecap, but note how sad it is that those supporting their freedom of expression are the same ones most determined to restrict ours,” wrote Greenwood and Tassa.
Tassa and Greenwood said that art exists above and beyond politics, and art that seeks to establish a common identity of musicians across borders should be encouraged, not decried.
“We agree completely with people who ask: ‘How can this be more important than what’s happening in Gaza and Israel?’ They’re right — it isn’t. How could it be? What, in anyone’s upcoming cultural life, is?” wrote the pair.
They expressed admiration for the performers in their band, particularly the Arab musicians and singers, for showing “amazing bravery and conviction in contributing to their first record and touring with them.”
Hours after releasing their response to the BDS claim, Tassa posted the link to their new song, “Sallam Alay,” with featured artist Jiana Naddaf, an Arab singer from Nazareth.
“Sallam Alay” means ‘she greeted me’ in Arabic.
The musicians noted in their response that most of the songs they perform are love songs.
Greenwood, who is married to Israeli artist Sharona Katan, has often partnered with Tassa over the last decade, along with other artists throughout the Middle East.
Last June, Greenwood pushed back against critics who said he should abandon his plan to tour with Tassa because of the Israel-Hamas war.
At the time, Greenwood and Tassa were scheduled to perform together on the European festival circuit, a year after they released a joint record featuring singers from across the Middle East.
Some of the dates were rescheduled after the pair canceled shows in the immediate wake of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Greenwood has maintained a relationship with Israel for many years.
In 2017, Radiohead performed in Israel, following previous shows in 1993 and again in 2000.
Besides being married to Katan, Greenwood recorded guitar on albums by Tassa and fellow Israeli Shye Ben Tzur.
Last October, a year following the October 7 terror attack, Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke clashed with an anti-Israel heckler before storming off-stage at a concert in Melbourne, Australia.
Yorke was nearing the end of his solo show when a protester began yelling about the Jewish state.
Radiohead, which has won several Grammy Awards and sold millions of records since the 1990s, has also been targeted by the BDS movement, especially in the lead-up to its 2017 concert in Tel Aviv. In response, Yorke called BDS protesters “offensive” and “patronizing.”
The Times of Israel Community.