Radiohead's Thom Yorke defends playing in Israel to Ken Loach
"We don't endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFRADIOHEAD(photo credit: REUTERS)
Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke continues to respond to criticism of the band's upcoming show in Tel Aviv on July 19. In a Twitter post Tuesday, Yorke wrote that "we don't endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America."“Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government… Music, art and academia is about crossing borders not building them, about open minds not closed ones, about shared humanity, dialogue and freedom of expression,” he added.Yorke's tweet was directed at director Ken Loach who penned an oped Tuesday in The Independent in which he slammed Radiohead's decision to perform in Israel.In the piece, Loach claims Radiohead has been unresponsive to his attempts to contact the band and in doing so, they’re implicitly standing with the side that he wrote "supports apartheid."“Radiohead need to decide if they stand with the oppressed or with the oppressor. The choice is simple,” Loach wrote.