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‘Nowhere Near Netanyahu’: Thom Yorke Says Radiohead Will ‘Absolutely Not’ Perform in Israel
Thom Yorke, frontman of Radiohead. Photo: Alex Cropper/Sipa USA
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke said the British rock band will not be performing in Israel again, even though the group’s lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, has family roots in the Jewish state.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Yorke, 57, was asked if Radiohead would return to Israel for a concert after the band’s controversial gig in Tel Aviv in 2017.
“Absolutely not,” the vocalist replied, before taking a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I wouldn’t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime, but Jonny has roots there. So, I get it.”
The interview took place before the recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization halted fighting in Gaza.
“I would also politely disagree with Thom,” Greenwood added during the interview. “I would argue that the government is more likely to use a boycott and say, ‘Everyone hates us — we should do exactly what we want.’ Which is far more dangerous.”
Radiohead performed at Park Hayarkon in July 2017 despite criticism and pressure to cancel the show from supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, including director Ken Loach and musicians Roger Waters, Thurston Moore, and Young Fathers.
During a solo show in Melbourne, Australia, last year, Yorke was heckled by an audience member about his silence on the Israel-Hamas war. The incident resulted in Yorke storming off stage. He later posted a lengthy statement on social media explaining what happened and also his thoughts on the Middle East conflict.
“I think Netanyahu and his crew of extremists are totally out of control and need to be stopped, and that the international community should put all the pressure it can on them to cease,” the musician wrote. He also argued that “the unquestioning Free Palestine refrain that surrounds us all does not answer the simple question of why the hostages still have not all been returned? For what possible reason?”
Greenwood, 53, is married to Israeli artist Sharona Katan. He has collaborated with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa since 2008, and in 2023, they released an album titled “Jarak Qaribak” (“Your Neighbor Is Your Friend”), which features musicians from across the Middle East. Greenwood and Tassa have performed together in Israel and were scheduled to have shows in the UK this summer, but they were canceled following pressure and alleged threats from BDS supporters.
Radiohead announced last month that for the first time in over seven years, the band will play live shows across Europe in November and early December. During the band’s break, Yorke and Greenwood worked together on three albums for their side band, The Smile. Yorke told The Sunday Times he is concerned about the new tour being targeted by anti-Israel agitators.
“But they don’t care about us,” he added. “It’s about getting something on Instagram of something dramatic happening and, no, I don’t think Israel should do Eurovision. But I don’’ think Eurovision should do Eurovision. So, what do I know?”
Immediately after the announcement about Radiohead’s tour, supporters of the BDS movement called for a boycott of the concerts. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) complained about the band’s alleged “complicit silence” about the Israel-Hamas war and support for Israeli performers, like Tassa, during the “genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” PACBI urged Radiohead fans to boycott the band’s concerts until it “convincingly distances itself” from Greenwood because of his performances in Israel and collaboration with Israeli musicians.
PACBI also noted that Radiohead has “yet to apologize” for the band’s 2017 performance in Israel and criticized Tassa for entertaining “genocidal Israeli forces in between these massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, willingly acting as a cultural ambassador for apartheid Israel.” Tassa played a show for the Israel Defense Forces in November 2023.
“This wakes me up at night,” Yorke told The Sunday Times about the boycott efforts. “They’re telling me what it is that I’ve done with my life, and what I should do next, and that what I think is meaningless. People want to take what I’ve done that means so much to millions of people and wipe me out. But this is not theirs to take from me — and I don’t consider I’m a bad person.”
“A few times recently I’ve had ‘Free Palestine!’ shouted at me on the street. I talked to a guy. His shtick was, ‘You have a platform, a duty and must distance yourself from Jonny’ … It’s a purity test, low-level Arthur Miller witch-hunt,” he added about being targeted by pro-Palestinian activists and pressured to distance himself from Greenwood. “I utterly respect the dismay but it’s very odd to be on the receiving end.”
Greenwood defended himself against the criticism over his close connection to Israel and work with Israeli musicians.
“When what I do with the musicians is described as sinister or devious? Well, I’ve done this for 20 years,” he explained to The Sunday Times. “Look, I have been to anti-government protests in Israel … I spend a lot of time there with family and cannot just say, ‘I’m not making music with you f–kers because of the government.’ It makes no sense to me. I have no loyalty — or respect, obviously — to their government, but I have both for the artists born there.”
“The only thing that I’m ashamed of is that I’ve dragged Thom and the others into this mess — but I’m not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians,” he told the publication. “I can’t apologize for that.”
Yorke previously responded to backlash about Radiohead’s 2017 concert in Tel Aviv. “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government. We don’t endorse Netanyahu any more than [US President Donald] Trump,” he said.
Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien, 57, has posted on social media in the past in support of the “Free Palestine” cause. He also wrote in a social media post last year: “Like so many of you I have found the events of Oct. 7 and what has followed too awful for words. Anything that I have tried to write feels so utterly inadequate. Ceasefire now. Return the hostages.” When asked by The Sunday Times about the controversy surrounding Radiohead’s 2017 gig in Israel, he said, “We should have played Ramallah in the West Bank as well.”
Radiohead drummer Philip Selway, 58, told the publication that it is “impossible” for the band to meet the demands of the BDS movement. “They want us to distance ourselves from Jonny, but that would mean the end of the band and Jonny is coming from a very principled place,” he said. “But it’s odd to be ostracized by artists we generally felt quite aligned to.”
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Lebanon Plans UN Complaint Against Israel Over Border Wall
A UN vehicle drives near a concrete wall along Lebanon’s southern border which, according to the Lebanese presidency, extends beyond the “Blue Line”, a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as seen from northern Israel, November 16, 2025. REUTERS/Shir Torem
Lebanon will file a complaint to the U.N. Security Council against Israel for constructing a concrete wall along Lebanon’s southern border that extends beyond the “Blue Line,” the Lebanese presidency said on Saturday.
The Blue Line is a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israeli forces withdrew to the Blue Line when they left south Lebanon in 2000.
A spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said on Friday the wall has made more than 4,000 square meters (nearly an acre) of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the local population.
The Lebanese presidency echoed his remarks, saying in a statement that Israel’s ongoing construction constituted “a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and an infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Dujarric said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had requested that the wall be removed.
An Israeli military spokesperson denied on Friday that the wall crossed the Blue Line.
“The wall is part of a broader IDF plan whose construction began in 2022,” the spokesperson said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Since the start of the war, and as part of lessons learned from it, the IDF has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border.”
UNIFIL, established in 1978, operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian staff, according to its website.
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Iran Says US Is Not Ready for ‘Equal and Fair’ Nuclear Talks
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Washington’s current approach toward Tehran does not indicate any readiness for “equal and fair negotiations,” Iran’s foreign minister said on Sunday, after US President Donald Trump hinted last week at potential discussions.
Following Israel’s attack on Iran in June, which was joined by U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, attempts at renewing dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program have failed.
The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear program as a veil for efforts to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran and Washington underwent five rounds of indirect nuclear talks prior to the 12-days-war, but faced obstacles such as the issue of domestic uranium enrichment, which the U.S. wants Iran to forego.
“The U.S. cannot expect to gain what it couldn’t in war through negotiations,” Abbas Araqchi said during a Tehran conference named “international law under assault.”
“Iran will always be prepared to engage in diplomacy, but not negotiations meant for dictation,” he added.
During the same conference, deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh accused Washington of pursuing its wartime goals with “negotiations as a show.”
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Israeli Government Decides ‘Independent’ Commission to Investigate Oct. 7 Failures
The Israeli Supreme Court in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – The Israeli government has approved the creation of an “independent” commission of inquiry to examine the failures that enabled the Hamas assault of October 7, 2023.
However, in a move sharply criticized by the opposition and contrary to the recommendation of the Supreme Court, the panel will not be a formal state commission of inquiry. Instead, its mandate, authorities, and scope will be determined directly by government ministers.
According to the decision, the commission will receive full investigative powers and must be composed in a way that ensures “the broadest possible public trust.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will form a special ministerial committee tasked with defining what the inquiry may investigate, the time periods to be reviewed, and the authority it will receive. The committee has 45 days to deliver its recommendations.
For the past year, the government has repeatedly resisted calls to establish a state commission, arguing at first that such a body could not operate during wartime. Later, some ministers accused Supreme Court President Isaac Amit of being incapable of appointing an impartial chairperson.
But on October 15, the High Court of Justice ruled that there was “no substantive argument” against forming a state commission, giving the government 30 days to respond.
Netanyahu maintains that responsibility for the October 7 failures lies primarily with Israel’s security agencies rather than with political leaders.
His critics accuse him of creating a weaker, government-controlled inquiry designed to limit scrutiny of his decisions, undermining the prospect of full accountability for the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.