Jonny Greenwood posts lengthy statement about recently cancelled shows with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa

Jonny Greenwood has posted a lengthy statement about his recently cancelled shows with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa.

• READ MORE: The Smile live in London: a jazz-punk adventure in an entirely new world to Radiohead

The Radiohead guitarist addressed the cancellations in a lengthy statement, writing that the shows were cancelled “with regret”, adding: “The venues and their blameless staff have received enough credible threats to conclude that it’s not safe to proceed.”

“Forcing musicians not to perform and denying people who want to hear them an opportunity to do so is self-evidently a method of censorship and silencing,” he continued. “Intimidating venues into pulling our shows won’t help achieve the peace and justice everyone in the Middle East deserves. This cancellation will be hailed as a victory by the campaigners behind it, but we see nothing to celebrate and don’t find that anything positive has been achieved.”

He also referenced a recent statement signed by over 100 artists on Belfast rap trio Kneecap. Politicians are trying to remove the band from festival line-ups this summer over alleged concert footage showing them calling for the death of Conservative MPs and appearing to support terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Quoting the artist’s statement expressing “opposition to any poltiical repression of artistic freedom”, Greenwood said: “We have no judgement to pass on Kneecap but note how sad it is that those supporting their freedom of expression are the same ones most determined to restrict ours.”

Greenwood concluded that he hoped his music with Tassa would be heard one day, adding: “If that happens, it won’t be a victory for any country, religion, or political cause. It’ll be a victory for our shared love and respect of the music – and of each other.” The post is then signed by Greenwood, Tassa and the rest of the musicians.

Read the full statement below:

pic.twitter.com/F5JrmDM1iC

— Jonny Greenwood (@JnnyG) May 6, 2025

Greenwood’s wife Sharona Katan is also Israeli, and their family had a nephew who was serving in the Israeli Defense Forces and was killed in the ongoing war against Hamas. He has previously played shows with Tassa in Tel Aviv in the last two years.

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has described Greenwood’s previous gigs as “artwashing genocide”.

He reacted to the controversy after last year’s Tel Aviv shows, writing: “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. 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.”

Greenwood concluded: “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.”

https://t.co/BcqpR8cOUH pic.twitter.com/TBrCbCleBS

— Jonny Greenwood (@JnnyG) June 4, 2024

Radiohead has also performed in Israel numerous times throughout their career, with their 2017 concert proving especially controversial.

The band faced calls to cancel the gig, with an open letter recently issued by Artists For Palestine UK – and signed by musicians including Roger Waters, Thurston Moore and Young Fathers, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu – asking the group to “think again” about their decision amid an ongoing and widespread cultural boycott of the country.

Radiohead Fans for Palestine also wrote, in an open letter to Thom Yorke, “it is the Palestinian people who have asked you to boycott and if you’re going to justify your show in Tel Aviv it is them you should be addressing.”

Yorke responded to the uproar in a Twitter altercation with director Ken Loach, with the latter asking the band whether they would “stand with the oppressed or the oppressor?”

Drummer Philip Selway has also said that playing the 2017 show “felt like the right decision”. Asked by NME whether he felt like the band had burned bridges by playing the show, Selway replied: “I honestly don’t know. That wouldn’t have been the basis to make our decision to play there. You know, I think we stand by what we have said and that feels like the right decision.”

The post Jonny Greenwood posts lengthy statement about recently cancelled shows with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa appeared first on NME.