Former Pink Floyd singer and bassist Roger Waters said on Monday that he was misunderstood by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke when he reached out to him, urging him to cancel his band’s scheduled show in Israel.
Waters told Rolling Stone in a statement that Yorke’s criticism of those who called for Radiohead to boycott Israel “doesn’t tell the whole story.”
Yorke said on Friday that he found it “deeply upsetting” and “patronizing in the extreme” that a group of international artists, including Waters, “choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw shit at us in public” by publishing an open letter.
Waters said he had emailed Yorke a month before the open letter came out, “expressing my concern about Radiohead crossing the BDS picket line to perform in Israel.” He said that Yorke responded angrily, viewing Waters’ words as a threat.
The founding member of Pink Floyd, who just released an album, “Is This the Life We Really Want?” and is about to embark on a world tour called “Us + Them” said he tried to talk with Yorke, and still hopes it may be possible for the two to have a conversation.
Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in November 2012 (Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images, via JTA)
“I have made every effort to engage with you personally,” Waters wrote, “and would still like to have the conversation.”
Waters ended his statement by slamming the “occupation of Palestine by Israel.”
“Today is the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Palestine by Israel,” he wrote, referring to Israel’s capture territory ruled by Jordan in 1967’s Six Day War. “Fifty years living under military occupation. Fifty years for a people with no civil rights. Fifty years of no recourse to the law. Fifty years of apartheid,” Waters said.
He referred to a “BDS picket line,” the purpose of which, he claimed, is “to shine a light on the predicament of the occupied people of Palestine, both in Palestine and those displaced abroad, and to promote equal civil rights for all the people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea no matter what their nationality, race or religion.”
Yorke told Rolling Stone magazine on Friday: “I’ll be totally honest with you, this has been extremely upsetting. There’s an awful lot of people who don’t agree with the BDS movement, including us. I don’t agree with the cultural ban at all, along with J.K. Rowling, Noam Chomsky and a long list of others.”
“It’s really upsetting that artists I respect think we are not capable of making a moral decision ourselves after all these years. They talk down to us and I just find it mind-boggling that they think they have the right to do that. It’s extraordinary.”
Yorke had noted that Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood was particularly hurt by the hatred the band had been subjected to over the upcoming concert.
“He has both Palestinian and Israeli fans and a wife who’s an Arab-Jew,” Yorke said. Greenwood is married to Israeli-born Sharona Katan, whose father’s family was Jewish-Iraqi and whose mother was from Egypt. On Twitter, she refers to herself as an “Arab Jew,” in reference to Jews who lived in Arab countries across the Mideast, and wrote “I’m very proud of my Arab roots, and to be Jewish at the same time.”
Ending with a message to Waters, Yorke had said: “Thanks, Roger. I mean, we’re best mates for life, but it’s like, fuck me, really?”
A cultural boycott campaign against Israel has had mixed success. Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana and Lauryn Hill have scrapped shows in previous years but Santana then played in Israel last summer and plenty of other major names including Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Lady Gaga, and Bon Jovi have performed in recent years. Britney Spears is playing in Israel next month, and Bryan Adams just announced he is to play concerts in Israel in December.
In an interview with AP last week, meanwhile, Waters denied that he is an anti-Semite, and said he had nothing against Israel.
Waters was asked: “You have always been outspoken when it comes to politics, and have been attacked on your support of a boycott of Israel. Some have called you anti-Semitic because of it. Are you?”
He replied: “I’ve got nothing against Israel, and I’ve certainly not got anything against Jewish people or Judaism. But I am fundamentally opposed to people being subjugated and not having rights under the law. So I’ve finished my little speech, but people have suggested that I’m anti-Semitic, which I am clearly not… I will go to my grave defending the rights of ordinary people, under a law, under a common law.”
Agencies contributed to this report.