Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke briefly left the stage during his Australian solo concert after an exchange with a member of the audience who had heckled him about Gaza deaths.
Video posted by concertgoers from the Melbourne show on a Wednesday shows a man shouting at Yorke. Although not all his words are heard, he urges Yorke to “condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.
Yorke tells the heckler to “hop on stage” and make his remarks.
“Don’t be a coward and stand there, come here to say it. You want to ruin everyone’s night? You do it, I’ll see you later,” Yorke continues before removing his instrument and ending his set.
The heckler repeated his question and added, “How many dead children will you take?”
Yorke played the Radiohead song Karma Police shortly after, to a roar of applause.
Elly Brus, a concert-goer at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, said that the protester did not “have support” from the crowd.
“He was escorted out by security.” He continued to interact with people outside of the venue,” she told BBC.
Israel launched a campaign against Hamas as a response to the group’s unprecedented attack in southern Israel on 7th October 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people, and 251 other hostages were taken.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, more than 43 160 people have died in Gaza since then, including thousands of children and women.
Both sides deny that they have violated the laws of war.
Radiohead was under pressure in the past to cancel its shows in Israel, and to participate in a boycott of the country because of its policies towards Palestinians.
Yorke reacted to this pressure by saying that “playing a game in a certain country doesn’t mean that you endorse its government“.
Yorke, in a 2017 statement, defended the decision to proceed with a concert planned in Tel Aviv.
“We don’t support [Israeli Prime Minster] Netanyahu any more or less than Trump but we still perform in America.” “Music, art, and academia are about crossing borders rather than building them,” he said at the time.
Earlier this year pro-Palestinian activist Jonny Greenwood was accused of “artwashing”, for performing with Israeli-Arabic singer Dudu Tassa at Tel Aviv.
Greenwood, in a recent statement on X, said that “no art is as important’ as stopping the death and suffering all around us.”
“But… silencing Israeli musicians for being born Jewish is Israel does not seem like a way to reach an agreement between the two sides in this seemingly endless conflict.”
The BBC has reached out to representatives of Yorke’s Australian Tour. The Arts Centre Melbourne which oversees Sidney Myer Music Bowl declined to comment.
Read More @ www.bbc.com