Abby & Roger Waters Make Waves With Radiohead Story
Widespread Coverage in Music Media Highlights BDS Call
After the publication of our full-length interview with Roger Waters, music media was abuzz with his denunciation of Radiohead refusing to honor the BDS picket line.
Their comments exposed how Waters had tried to start a friendly conversation with frontman Thom Yorke many years ago, only to be rebuked. Radiohead later went on the record clarifying that they were in no way ignorant to what Israel was doing.
After Yorke chose to walk-off stage rather than ignore a single pro-Palestine heckler at a recent show, Abby raised his behavior with Waters last week.
In the interview Waters directed his comments at Yorke and Jonny Greenwood:
“There is nothing difficult to understand. It is not a conflict. It is a ge-no-cide, Thom and Jonny, and you are supporting it.”
The Israeli artist who performed with Radiohead's Greenwood, as recently as May 2024, just issued a formal response to the interview, showing that the attention has reached the iconic band and caused enough of a stir.
The artist, Dudu Tassa, said:
“Dear Roger, Are you not tired of obsessing over the same musicians who are simply trying to bring good into the world? Move on.”
For Tassa, “simply trying to bring good to the world” includes performing for IDF troops as they carry out the most-documented genocide in history at least twice since Oct. 7, as seen in this video from November 2023, and again in December 2023 specifically for IDF troops “taking part in operational activities in Gaza,” to boost morale before they go back to murdering children.
A glance at the X account for Greenwoods wife, Israeli citizen Sharona Katan, shows a fervent support for the Israeli genocide.
Abby Martin, commenting on the backlash, said:
“It's become clear over the past year that Radiohead has been trying to cover for their position as simply ‘bringing people together’ when it's really about the fact that they support what Israel is doing.”
Below is a wrap up of some of the more prominent publications who have covered our story:
The widespread coverage strengthens the BDS movement by bringing heat on those who knowingly violate the picket line, and is necessary pressure in building the culture and moral standards necessary to isolate and ultimately defeat the ethnic cleansing and mass murder in Palestine.