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Jonny Greenwood (guitarist from Radiohead) and the Israeli musician Dudu Tasa have canceled two planned concerts in Great Britain. According to a public statement, the reason for this is “credible threats” against the venues and their staff. There were no concrete details on the type and origin of the threats.
Cancellation for security concerns
The gigs in Bristol and London were scheduled for June 23 and 25. You should be part of the tour for the Jarak Quaribak album, which in particular presents Arabic love songs with contributions from musicians: inside from Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait and Iraq.
The statement states: “The venues and your guiltless staff have received enough credible threats to come to the conclusion that it is not certain to carry out the concerts.” It also says that the promoters: inside could not be held responsible for ensuring the security of the audience or the artist: to ensure inside.
The background to the cancellation is protests against cultural cooperation with Israeli artists: inside in the context of the Middle East conflict. The PACBBI Palestinian campaign, part of the “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” movement (for short: BDS), had described the planned appearances as “genocide artwashing” and publicly welcomed its cancellation.
According to Greenwood and Tassa, a “fall of censorship”
Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa decidedly rejected these allegations and described the development as the “obvious case of censorship”. In her statement it says: “The campaign, which has successfully stopped the concerts, insists that” this is not a censorship “and” It is not about making music to silence or attacking individual artists “. […] To force musicians not to appear and people who want to hear this opportunity to deny this is obviously a form of censorship and the bringing. “
The musicians emphasize that their project wanted to beat cultural bridges between different parts of the Middle East and was “beyond political camp”. Greenwood already said in 2024 that he considered it “not progressive” to boycott art Israeli Jew: Inside.
It is unclear whether the canceled concerts will be made up for later. However, Greenwood and Tassa expressed the hope of being able to present their joint work “one day still live live […] Somewhere, somehow ”.