Roger Waters: Radiohead Won’t Boycott Israel — Even Though I Asked
Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters says that he failed to convince the British rock group Radiohead to back out of its Tel Aviv show in protest of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
“I have engaged in a correspondence with some of Radiohead and they seem to have decided that they’re going to go ahead and do a concert in Tel Aviv, so there’s very little more that I can say on the matter,” Waters told New York Times music critic John Pareles during a taped interview on Wednesday.
Waters and several other artists, including author Alice Walker and Sonic Youth musician Thurston Moore, implored Radiohead to cancel its July 19 show in a public letter.
“Since Radiohead campaigns for freedom for the Tibetans, we’re wondering why you’d turn down a request to stand up for another people under foreign occupation,” the letter read, according to the Times of Israel.
Waters, a prominent critic of Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinians, said he didn’t want to call out Radiohead further.
“If people choose to (go), that is entirely a matter for them and their own consciences.”
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO