Jonny Greenwood hits out at concert cancellations: “Taking books off of shelves”
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has weighed in on the censorship debate by likening gigs being cancelled to music being removed from shelves.
In 2025, Greenwood was set to perform several UK dates with renowned Israeli artist Dudu Tassa before they were cancelled due to reports of credible threats and protests from the official Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In their statement, the BDS urged fans to consider Greenwood’s wider involvement with Israel, writing, “Jonny Greenwood performed in apartheid Tel Aviv along with Dudu Tassa in May 2024, on a night that genocidal Israeli forces massacred displaced Palestinians in their tents in Rafah, burning them alive, just a short drive away.”
They added, “The pair repeated their performance there again in March 2025. Dudu Tassa has repeatedly entertained genocidal Israeli forces in between these massacres of Palestinians in Gaza, willingly acting as a cultural ambassador for apartheid Israel.”
Tassa and Greenwood’s subsequent performances were then cancelled, with the pair condemning the cancellations in a joint statement that said, “Intimidating venues into pulling our shows won’t help achieve the peace and justice everyone in the Middle East deserves.”
But Greenwood has now elaborated on the matter in an interview with El Pais. It was put to the Radiohead guitarist that many cited the rejection of certain South African artists was deemed essential in the ending of apartheid, and that the cancellation of artists tied to Israel may just result in the same outcome.
It was a point to which Greenwood replied, “I’m a fan of lots of Israeli films and writers and musicians, and the music I make with Dudu is resurrecting songs that are older than most of the countries that are currently fighting each other.”
He continued, ”That’s always going to be more important to me. There are bookshops in Madrid that are openly selling Amos Oz’s novels and he’s Israeli. To me, cancelling music is the same as taking books off shelves.”
Since the cancellation, neither Greenwood or Tassa have booked any more dates for their tour, with Greenwood largely focusing on his own film-scoring projects and the more recent Radiohead tour. Despite all of their scheduled shows going ahead, the latter was still the source of boycott protests with the BDS movement stating, “Boycott Radiohead’s tours! Complicity must have consequences.”
Below was Greenwood’s statement after his shows were cancelled last year.
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