Roger Waters, a member of Pink Floyd, has criticized Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood for their views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Waters, who supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, had asked Radiohead in 2017 not to perform in Tel Aviv, saying that Israel treats Palestinians unfairly. Radiohead’s most energetic songs have also been revealed.
In a recent interview, Waters shared details of emails he exchanged with Yorke. Yorke said Waters was not open to having a proper conversation. Waters replied that he and BDS activists had been trying to discuss the issue with Yorke for months. Waters called Yorke “damaged” and “insecure,” claiming Yorke didn’t want to engage seriously.
“I wrote [Yorke] a sort of email that went, ‘I’m sorry if you thought I was being confrontational’. He wrote back and he said, ‘Normally, people on one side of an argument at least have the decency or the grace or the something to have a conversation.’”
The debate also involved Greenwood, who worked with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa and performed in Tel Aviv. Greenwood explained that he had been collaborating with Tassa for years to combine Arab and Jewish music, believing it could promote understanding. He said it’s important to stop the suffering in the region but argued that doing nothing would be worse.
Waters rejected Greenwood’s reasoning, saying it ignored the oppression of Palestinians. He criticized Greenwood’s concert, especially since it happened at the same time as Israeli attacks in Gaza. Waters claimed the conflict is simple: one group is oppressed, and the other is the oppressor.
“I think he’s damaged,” Waters said about the Radiohead frontman. “He’s very damaged. He’s obviously very, very deeply insecure. He obviously thinks he’s very bright but he’s not. So he can’t actually have a conversation.”
“There is no argument to be made. There is the oppressed and the oppressor. The oppressed are the indigenous people of Palestine, the oppressor are the settler-colonial visitors from North America and North Europe… There is nothing difficult to understand. It is not a conflict. It is a genocide, Thom and Jonny!”
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel agreed with Waters, urging artists not to work with Israeli institutions they see as supporting unfair treatment of Palestinians.
“I’ve been collaborating with Dudu and releasing music with him since 2008 – and working privately long before that. 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.”“Anyway, no art is as ‘important’ as stopping all the death and suffering around us,” he continued. “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.”
