Guitarist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame is pushing back against critics who have called for him to cancel his upcoming tour with long-time collaborator, Israeli singer Dudu Tassa, in light of the ongoing war in Gaza.
In a long statement posted to his X account, Greenwood called the silencing of Israeli artists, including filmmakers, musicians, and dancers at the urging of their fellow western artists “unprogressive,” especially from those who call themselves progressive.
“I’m grateful to be working with the remarkable musicians I’ve met during this project,” Greenwood wrote, “all of whom strike me as much braver – and taking far more of a principled risk – than those who are trying to shut us down, or who are no attempting to ascribe a sinister ulterior motivation to the band’s existence. There isn’t one: we are musicians honoring a shared culture, and I’ve been involved in this for nearly 20 years now.”
Last week, during a visit to Israel, Greenwood and Tassa played at the popular Barby Club in Tel Aviv. The pair performed songs from their 2023 album of Arabic love ballads, Jarak Qaribak, recorded with artists from around the Middle East, including Ahmed Duma from Cairo, Noor Freitah from Ramallah and Rashid Al-Najjar from Beirut. According to Israeli news outlet N12, Tassa commented from the stage, “There are musicians here, not politicians.”
“Music has always worked wonders,” he added to loud applause. “May we know better days and may everyone return safely.”
A day prior to the show, Greenwood, who is married to Israeli visual artist Sharona Katan, was photographed at one of the weekly Tel Aviv protests calling for the release of the hostages in Gaza and new elections in Israel.
The concert garnered much chatter online, with many pro-Palestinian users calling for a boycott of Greenwood and Tassa’s upcoming tour together on the European festival circuit this summer as well as Radiohead shows. A statement from the X account of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) read, “We call for peaceful, creative pressure on Radiohead to convincingly distance itself from this blatant complicity in the crime of crimes, or face grassroots measures.”
Radiohead, which has won several Grammy Awards and sold millions of records since the 1990s, have been the targets of the BDS movement before, especially in the lead-up to their 2017 concert in Tel Aviv. In response, lead singer Thom Yorke called BDS protesters “offensive” and “patronizing,” adding, “The person who knows most about these things is Jonny.”
This time it was Greenwood who fired back. “No art is as ‘important’ as stopping all the death and suffering around us,” he wrote in the statement. “How can it be? 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. So that’s why I’m making music with this band. You’re welcome to disagree with, or ignore, what we do – but I hope you now understand what the true motivation is, and can react to the music without suspicion or hate.”
Greenwood’s statement also made reference to Tassa’s musical heritage – he is the grandson of Daoud Al-Kuwaity, one of the most famous Iraqi composers of the 20th century, who immigrated to Israel in 1951.
“I’ve been collaborating with Dudu and releasing music with him since 2008 – and working privately long before that.” Greenwood wrote. “I think an artistic project that combines Arab and Jewish musicians is worthwhile. And one that reminds everyone that the Jewish cultural roots in countries like Iraq and Yemen go back for thousands of years, is also important.”
“For all that, whenever you call an artistic endeavor ‘important’ it ascribes an earnestness to the whole thing. Really, it’s just musicians from all over the Middle East having mutual respect for each other, working together across borders, and sharing our love for the long catalog of Arabic songs -whether they were written by Muslim, Jewish or Christian composers.”
While response to the statement on Greenwood’s own account was largely positive, with users thanking the musician for his “brave and honest and moral position,” others were less than thrilled with his refusal to back down, including BDS movement supporters. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott took to X to say, “Palestinians rejectJonny Greenwood’s misleading excuses for his immoral artwashing of Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. We call for increased peaceful pressure on his bands Radiohead & The Smile to distance themselves from it or face grassroots measures.”
In an Instagram post this week, Tassa called Greenwood “an amazing person who is always willing to take risks for peace and justice,” and a dear friend.
“Our desire and choice as musicians from different backgrounds (he is an English rocker and I am a Jewish-Israeli who absorbed roots of Arab culture) have always been and will continue to be, to strive to understand the ‘other,’ to get to know him and to introduce him to us through the language of music — completely the opposite of fostering a one-sided discourse of boycotts and threats,” Tassa wrote.
