Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke walked off-stage earlier this week (October 29) during a performance in Melbourne, Australia, after a member of the crowd heckled messages of solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Multiple social media clips of the incident appear to depict an audience member shouting at Yorke about the rising death toll in Gaza, followed by the question: “How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the Israeli occupation of Palestine?” amid growing hostility from the surrounding crowd. 

Yorke, who has previously been criticised for performing in Tel Aviv and defying the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, is seen responding: “Hop up on the fucking stage and say what you wanna say. Don’t stand there like a coward, come here and say it. You want to piss on everybody’s night?” before walking offstage. The Oxford-based musician is then reported to have subsequently returned to the stage to perform final song “Karma Police.” 

Responding to previous criticisms of his performances in Israel in a statement on X in 2017, Yorke argued that “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government… We don’t endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump but we all still play in America.” 

Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood, who is married to Israeli artist Sharona Katan, has also come under criticism in recent years for his collaborations with Israeli artists who have vocally supported Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza. In particular, Greenwood’s recent collaborative release with Israeli musician Dudu Tassa was accused by the BDS movement of “artwashing genocide”. 

Responding in a separate statement on his social media accounts, Greenwood announced: “No art is as ‘important’ as stopping all the death and suffering around us, how can it be? But doing nothing seems like a worse option. And silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel doesn’t seem like any way to reach an understanding between the two sides of this apparently endless conflict.”