Two concerts of the couple formed by Jonny Greenwood of the Radiohead and Dudu tax scheduled for 23 and 25 June respectively at the Bristol Beacon and at the Saint Church in London have been deleted. The official reason has not been communicated, but the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (Pacbi-Bds), an organization that operates for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, has released the news by making it clear that the cancellation could be caused by the pressure of pro-Pal activists. The two artists have not commented so far. The Promoter Form did not respond to our clarification request.
“The Palestinians welcome the cancellation of the concerts”, reads the Pacbi-Bds account X account, where it is explained that “artists and organizers have been mobilized” so that the concert was not held in Bristol, a city with long progressive history. If they were held, the two performances of Greenwood and Tax would have been the acts of “Whitewashing of the genocide of Israel against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and the colonial apartheid regime”. In another tweet, the couple's concerts are labeled as “Artwashing”, a term similar to Greenwashing which indicates in this specific case the use of music to legitimize the action of the Israeli government.
In the past, the guitarist of the Radiohead and the Israeli Dudu Tasso, authors of the album Jarak Qaribakdid not accept the requests of BDS activists (Boicottaggiaggio disinvestment of penalties) so that they did not perform at Tel Aviv. Tax also sang for the Israeli military. Greenwood is married to Sharona Katan, Israeli artist a nephew died in the Israeli army fighting against Hamas.
“This is not very active, it is intimidation,” he said to Telegraph A spokesman for the British anti-semitix campaign Against. «The organizers who bend to the requests of fanatics obsessed with Israel should remember that similar tactics do not serve to bring peace to the Middle East, but they do nothing but make people's life more difficult. The premises must not capitulate in front of pressure campaigns that try to intimidate those who are simply simply alongside the only Jewish state in the world “.
The Pacbi-Bds account now also asks for the boycott of the next concerts of the Smile (the Greenwood group and Thom Yorke with Tom Skinner) and the Radiohead “until they convince themselves to distance themselves” from the guitarist's choices.
They are not only guitarist choices. Already in 2017 Roger Waters, a bright supporter of the Boicottage campaign divestment of penalties, asked Radiohead unnecessarily not to perform in Israel. When in October 2024 Yorke interrupted a concert after being whistled by a pro-Palestine protester, Waters defined him in no uncertain terms “a jerk” saying that he had tried unnecessarily to dialogue with him on the subject. “Do you think she is brilliant, but it is not, it is not able to support a conversation.”
Similar controversy emerged just under year ago, when Greenwood and Tarass performed in Tel Aviv and participated in an event for the release of the Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas and new elections in Israel. “Performing itself in the Israel of Apartheid, who burns the Palestinian refugees in a short distance from there, to Gaza, is deeply immoral and covers a genocide”, read on the BDS website.
Greenwood replied saying that “an artistic project that unites Arab and Jewish musicians is useful. And that a project is equally important that reminds everyone that Jewish cultural roots in countries such as Iraq and Yemen date back thousands of years ago. (…) These are musicians from the whole Middle East who respect each other, who work by overcoming the borders that separate them, who share love for the vast catalog of Arabic songs, does not matter if written by Muslim composers, Jews or Christians “.
“Others, on the other hand, choose to believe that this type of project is unjustifiable and ask to silence this or any other artistic project made by Israeli Jews. I cannot join this appeal: to silence the filmmakers/musicians/Israeli dancers when their work goes on tour abroad – especially when it takes place at the stress of their colleagues/musicians/western artists – it seems very little progressive to me. Also because the artists we are talking about are invariably the most progressive members of the companies ».
It is true, Greenwood wrote that no artistic expression is as important as “to stop death and suffering, but not doing anything is a worse option. And silenced the Israeli artists because Jews were born in Israel does not seem a way to achieve an agreement between the two parts of an apparently endless conflict ».
