A year ago two concerts by Jonny Greenwood and the Israeli Dudu Tassa, fresh from an album in which they were accompanied by musicians and singers from Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq, were cancelled. A success of peaceful pressure on venues in London and Bristol, according to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. According to Greenwood and Tassa, however, the venues that were supposed to host them were subjected to such threats as to endanger the safety of musicians, workers and the public.
It's a topic the Radiohead guitarist doesn't like to talk about in interviews. In this period he is doing few related to Ranjhathe album he released with the Israeli Shye Ben Tzur and the Indian Rajasthan Express, eleven years after the previous one Junun.
Talking about it with El Paisto a question about the boycott Greenwood replied after a long silence that «I am a fan of Israeli cinema, literature and music. The music I make with Dudu brings back older songs from most of the countries that are fighting each other today and that will always be the most important thing to me. There are bookstores in Madrid that freely sell the novels of Amos Oz, who is Israeli. Deleting music is like taking books off the shelves.”
To a subsequent question about what is happening in Palestine and Lebanon from the perspective of Israelis (Greenwood's wife is), the guitarist replies that “I'm not sure I understand what this has to do with the fact that I made a record with Indians in Oxford.” At that point a representative of the record company BMG asks the journalist not to address the topic.
In October 2025, Radiohead had talked about it with Sunday Times and on that occasion Greenwood explained that he had participated in anti-government protests in Israel and that it is one thing to play with Israeli musicians and another to appreciate the government. “I spend a lot of time there with the family and I can't just say: 'I don't make music with you assholes because of the government.' It doesn't make sense. I have no loyalty or respect for their government obviously, but I have for the artists born there.”
About Radiohead and their reunion, al Pais Greenwood said that “we're very lucky to be able to do this and that people want to come and see us,” but also that they're “bad at planning things in advance and when we go on tour we have to decide everything about a year and a half into the game, which is crazy. We're talking about how to do it again, but obviously nothing will happen for a long time.”
And regarding a possible new Radiohead album: «I haven't the slightest idea. Thom is working on some recordings of his own, he wants to finish those and then, as I was saying, we never plan things far in advance. So at the moment no one knows.”
