http://nypost.com/2017/07/18/d...-tour-in-israel/amp/

Don’t tell Radiohead it can’t tour in Israel



When Radiohead, by general consensus the most culturally important rock group in the world, announced that it would be extending the concert tour for its widely acclaimed 2016 album “A Moon Shaped Pool” into 2017, the biggest surprise of all was the final show on the schedule: Tel Aviv. On Wednesday the band will play in Israel for the first time in 17 years.

It’s also the first time since the 2005 emergence of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement, created by Western pro-Palestinian activists as a means of punishing Israel through academic and cultural boycotts not only of the country but of Israeli artists and academics who perform or speak abroad.

Rock stars garner far more media attention than academics, of course, so trying to prevent bands from playing in Israel is a key component of isolating Israel not just politically but culturally. To see Israeli fans rejected by their heroes.

Thus it was a major public scandal to Western activists (particularly in Europe) to find out that Radiohead wasn’t on board with it.

Radiohead’s history with Israel is surprisingly longstanding and deep, on both a professional and personal level. It was the country where the band scored its first hit single (“Creep,” which took off there after flopping in its initial release everywhere else across the world).

It has been the site of many of the band’s most memorable concerts, and lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood even met his wife (Israeli artist Sharon Katan) there, back during their first visit in 1993.

And yet, while the members of the band had never expressed a public opinion one way or another on the BDS movement, the default assumption was that, as politically active leftists and titans of the modern music scene, Radiohead would naturally be supportive of it.

So when it was discovered that The Most Important Band In The World didn’t subscribe to BDS’s political program, yawps of outrage arose from BDS activists and soon turned to intense lobbying (both public and private) to force them to “reconsider.”

Celebrity BDS’ers — including Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, former South African Archibishop Desmond Tutu and Pink Floyd’s unutterably condescending Roger Waters — signed a public petition/“open letter” to Radiohead insisting the band cancel the Israel show and uphold the BDS cultural boycott, or else the band’s previous commitments to social justice would be considered “mere rhetoric.”

Moore accused the band of being complicit in “state-sponsored fascism.” Musician Robert Wyatt smugly denounced the band as acting as “fragrant camouflage for [Israel’s] relentlessly accelerating ethnic cleansing campaign.”

Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s normally publicity-shy frontman, responded to all of this in a bracingly direct interview with Rolling Stone: “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.”

He continued, getting to the heart of the issue: “I would never dream of telling [people] where to work or what to do or think . . . It’s deeply disrespectful to assume that we’re either being misinformed or that we’re so retarded we can’t make these decisions ourselves. I thought it was patronizing in the extreme.”

It’s depressing that Radiohead’s desire to return to a country that has a large, longstanding and vociferously supportive fan base should even be a political issue at all. But it is indicative of the trend in the modern era to politicize everything, and of people’s desire to use culture as a blunt, bludgeoning weapon against their enemies.

Ultimately, what is most admirable about Radiohead refusing to buckle to the BDS pressure and media hassle is the fact that it is seeking to float above the politics of the issue entirely. Its members don’t want you to interpret their decision to play in Tel Aviv as a political statement any more than they would ask you to interpret their shows in the United States as a statement of support for, say, President Trump. Rather, they just want to play their music for their loyal fans.

In an era where politics is seemingly consuming every aspect of public and private life, Radiohead’s willingness to hold out against that trend is just one more reason why they are the most noteworthy band of their era.

I always loved Radiohead for their music. I never even thought about what their politics were, but that's mostly because they simply didn't wear it much on their sleeves.

Glad to see them standing up to these bullies.

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
“fragrant camouflage for [Israel’s] relentlessly accelerating ethnic cleansing campaign.”

Do these idiots ever watch the news or even for a moment otherwise pay attention to what is going on in the world?

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
“fragrant camouflage for [Israel’s] relentlessly accelerating ethnic cleansing campaign.”

Do these idiots ever watch the news or even for a moment otherwise pay attention to what is going on in the world?

I don't understand these people. It's difficult to comprehend how someone that screams about having their voices suppress can call for the suppression of others voices.

I cannot fathom their thought process to get to such ideas.

They love to sling the word 'fascism' around by I truly believe that they think it means something other than what it really means.

quote:

I don't understand these people.

I do, they are simply, insane.

Once you get that part, all the rest makes sense that makes no sense. (but not the other way around)

quote:

Originally posted by kx90:

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:
“fragrant camouflage for [Israel’s] relentlessly accelerating ethnic cleansing campaign.”

Do these idiots ever watch the news or even for a moment otherwise pay attention to what is going on in the world?

I don't understand these people. It's difficult to comprehend how someone that screams about having their voices suppress can call for the suppression of others voices.

I cannot fathom their thought process to get to such ideas.

They love to sling the word 'fascism' around by I truly believe that they think it means something other than what it really means.

They only mean your or my "fascism", not theirs.