From the New Musical Express (NME)
Jonny Greenwood has seen two UK shows with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa cancelled after protests from the BDS movement.
The Radiohead guitarist has played a handful of shows with Tassa in Tel Aviv over the last two years, most recently in March this year. After a pair of similar shows last year, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, described the events as “artwashing genocide”.
The pair were due to play two shows in the UK next month, at Bristol’s Beacon on June 23 and London’s Hackney Church on June 25. However, it has been confirmed in recent days that both shows have now been cancelled.
Responding to the first gig being called off, PACBI wrote on X: “Palestinians welcome the cancellation of Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa’s concert . . .” On Friday (May 2), they also reacted to the second show’s cancellation: “UPDATE: Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa’s show at Hackney Church has also been cancelled. Palestinians welcome the cancellation of both of their UK shows. We reiterate our call for all venues to refuse to programme this complicit event that can only artwash genocide.”
Greenwood’s wife, the artist Sharona Katan, is Israeli. Their family had a nephew who was serving in the Israeli Defense Forces and was killed in the ongoing war against Hamas.
Reacting to the controversy after last year’s Tel Aviv shows, Greenwood wrote: “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.”
PACBI said in a response provided to NME: “By performing in apartheid Tel Aviv while Israeli forces burned Palestinians alive in Rafah, Gaza – a fact he conveniently omits from his letter – Jonny Greenwood is knowingly complicit in covering up these atrocities. No progressive music fan can accept this. All Palestinian/Arab musicians should refuse to act as figleaves for international artists crossing the Palestinian picket line – or for Israeli artists who have entertained Israeli forces massacring Palestinians, as Greenwood’s collaborator Dudu Tassa has repeatedly done.”
The Diocese of London, of which Saint Church (Hackney) is a part, said the concert there was cancelled by the promoter, Form, and that the church had no role in the decision. Form was also the promoter for the gig in Bristol.
“Saint were informed yesterday by the promoter that the event wouldn’t be going ahead and were instructed by the promoter to inform those who had bought tickets that they would receive a full refund,” a spokesman said.
