A number of musicians joined Artists For Palestine UK, urging bands to pull out of Israeli shows
February 8, 2017
Despite the ongoing music industry boycott of Israeli policy towards Palestina, Radiohead have announced that they are going to play a show in Israel this summer. Thom Yorke and co. will perform at the Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv on July 19 (see the band’s tweet below).
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The announcement of the show has stirred up the music community as a lot of bands have been avoiding playing in Israel due to the industry protest of the country’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
Supporters of the “Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality” formed a campaign Artists For Palestine UK, which has recently welcomed former Pink Floyd frontman, Roger Waters, as their member. The group of musicians has written an open letter urging The Chemical Brothers to pull out of a recently announced show, saying:
[quote align=”center” color=”#COLOR_CODE”]“Tel Aviv’s hipster vibe is a bubble on the surface of a very deep security state that drove out half the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948 and has no intention of letting their descendants back in,” the letter reads. “If you go to Tel Aviv, your presence will be used by the Israeli authorities to reassure their citizens that all’s right with the world and nobody really cares that the Palestinians are suffering… Please don’t go.”[/quote]
Artists For Palestine UK haven’t commented on Radiohead’s plans yet. Neither has the band, according to NME. But it doesn’t come as a surprise that Radiohead want to play a show in Israel. The band’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood is married to an Israeli artist, Sharona Katan, plus he has recently released a collaborative album, titled Junun, with Israeli composer/singer Shye Ben Tzur, NME reports.
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Radiohead will set out on an 11-date U.S. tour on March 30. Then, in the summer the band will be headlining new Glasgow festival TRNSMT on July 7 as well as the renowned Glastonbury 2017. They’ll also have a run of European shows, including venues in France, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Italy and Ireland.
Radiohead members are also pursuing solo carees, with Greenwood prepping a solo tour and rhythm guitarist Ed O’Brien working on his debut solo album, which is due out this year.
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Radiohead will be playing at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv, Israel on Wed 19 July. Tickets on sale now https://t.co/VI8gh37vI3 pic.twitter.com/fxP5WhWTLO
— Radiohead (@radiohead) February 8, 2017
