Artists for Palestine UK statement

London, July 17

Film writer and director Mike Leigh has criticised Thom Yorke and Radiohead for ignoring Palestinian suffering, two days ahead of their controversial Israel gig.

Last week Radiohead front-man Yorke defended the band’s decision to play in Israel and ignore the Palestinian picket-line, arguing that music was about ‘crossing borders’ and ‘shared humanity’.

Today, Oscar nominated Leigh, who is in production for his forthcoming feature film ‘Peterloo’, issued the following statement via Artists for Palestine UK –

‘On Wednesday Radiohead will perform in a Tel Aviv stadium built over the ruins of the Palestinian village of Jarisha. It is a sad fact that Radiohead have failed to engage with Palestinians who have called for them not to play, and that Thom Yorke’s comments are devoid of any reference to Palestinians at all. As the lights go out in Gaza and Palestinian cancer patients die because they are denied travel permits by Israel, while a Palestinian poet in Israel lives under house arrest for a poem she wrote on Facebook, while a young circus performer from the West Bank languishes in administrative detention without charge or trial – Thom Yorke speaks loftily about ‘crossing borders’ and ‘freedom of expression’. One has to ask, freedom for whom exactly?’

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For more on the instances to which Leigh refers see –

Beloved Abeer passes away after being denied travel for treatment outside Gaza https://www.map.org.uk/news/archive/post/697-

Mohammad Abu Sakha: in prison for making children happy

https://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/2016/12/13/mohammad-abu-sakha-in-prison-for-making-children-happy/

Political poetry as a crime: Inside the surreal trial of Dareen Tatour https://972mag.com/political-poetry-as-a-crime-inside-the-surreal-trial-of-dareen-tatour/126155/