Roger Waters accuses Radiohead of supporting the Israeli government

The Pink Floyd co-founder has heavily criticised the Oxford band for playing a controversial gig in Tel Aviv last month

Roger Waters has accused Radiohead of supporting the Israeli government in a new interview.

The Thom Yorke-led band performed a controversial concert in Tel Aviv last month (July 20) and the Pink Floyd co-founded criticised them heavily in the lead up to the show.

Yorke had tweeted a statement ahead of the gig saying the band don’t “endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”

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Now, speaking to RT, Waters has said the frontman is wrong that playing in Israel doesn’t mean he endorses the government’s policies there. “Spokespersons of that government have said how excited they are, that this is the best thing that’s happened to their hasbara, which is the explaining to the rest of the world what a wonderful and precious democracy Israel is,” he said.

“And willy-nilly, when they cross the picket line, they are making a public statement that they do endorse policies of the government, whatever they say, because that is what will be reported in Israel and that is what gets reported around the world. That is why Radiohead are being so soundly criticised by anybody with progressive ideas about human rights, because they have taken that step.”

Waters also refuted Yorke’s argument that it was the same as playing in America while Trump is in office, explaining that US citizens haven’t asked international performers to stay away because they are “an occupied people”. “[Israeli citizens] have made an appeal to all artists, writers, musicians, actors, directors, anybody in the rest of the world to observe the picket line, which they have drawn,” he added.

Watch the interview above, via Consequence Of Sound

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