LONDON: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has said in a British newspaper interview he would not now perform in Israel, eight years after the band defied pro-Palestinian activists to play a Tel Aviv gig. “Absolutely not. I wouldn’t want to be 5,000 miles anywhere near the Netanyahu regime,” he told The Sunday Times Magazine, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The interview with members of the British band — whose UK No. 1 albums include “OK Computer” and “Kid A” — took place before this month’s ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
The band begin their first tour in seven years next month, playing 20 shows in five European cities.
Radiohead's 2016-2018 “A Moon Shaped Pool” world tour ignited a backlash when the group performed in Tel Aviv despite boycott calls.
Yorke hinted at some regret over the decision in the new interview, saying he was “horrified” when a “clearly connected high up” Israeli came to their hotel to thank them for playing.
The issue has dogged the band and its members at other points. Yorke briefly walked offstage during a solo gig in Australia last year after a pro-Palestinian heckler shouted “How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza?”
The frontman released a statement in May saying the incident left him “in shock that my supposed silence was somehow being taken as complicity.”
Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood is married to an Israeli artist and has faced sustained criticism from boycott advocates for his long-time collaboration with Israel-born rock musician Dudu Tassa.
The Radiohead guitarist told the magazine he spent a lot of time in Israel with family and was “not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians.”
