Pro-Palestine organizations have condemned Thom Yorke after he said calls for Radiohead to cancel a concert in Israel were “patronizing” and “offensive.” Director Ken Loach, one of 1200 artists to sign the petition against the show, released a brief statement via Artists for Palestine UK: “Thom’s is a simple choice: will he stand with the oppressor or the oppressed?” The organization went on to lament the “off-the-cuff” nature of Yorke’s remarks, saying he failed to acknowledge that “the band are going into a live colonial situation.”

Like Roger Waters, both Artists for Palestine UK and Radiohead Fans for Palestine dispute Yorke’s claim that signees had chosen to “throw shit at [the band] in public ... rather than engage with [them] personally.” In an open letter, Seamus O'Brolchain of Radiohead Fans for Palestine wrote, “We sent you letters in the post, we politely tried to hand them to a band member at a public event, we called your agents and your publicists, and you ignored us.”

In their letter, Artists for Palestine UK addressed Yorke’s assertion that the “person who knows most about these things is Jonny [Greenwood]. He has both Palestinian and Israeli friends and a wife who’s an Arab Jew.” In response, the organization wrote:

Palestinians who read Yorke’s comments will wonder if he knows anything at all about their dispossession and forced exile, and what it’s like to live under military occupation. He doesn’t mention the Palestinians other than to say guitarist Jonny Greenwood has ‘Palestinian friends’. A lot of us do, Thom. That doesn’t mean we think it’s okay to play a 40,000-strong stadium built on the ruins of a Palestinian village.

Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said, “If Radiohead genuinely believe that the Palestinian people misunderstand the nature of their oppression and the response required, then they should meet with representatives face to face to explain how they have come to this judgment.”

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel commented to BDS:

Thom Yorke got one thing right: boycotts called for by oppressed communities struggling for their rights are indeed 'divisive.' In the Montgomery Bus boycott, the Delano Grape Farmers boycott, the South African anti-apartheid boycott, among others, those who continued business-as-usual with the oppressors were set apart from those who chose to stand on the right side of history, with the rights of the oppressed. Where does Radiohead see itself?

In their open letter, Radiohead Fans for Palestine wrote:

To demand that people not tell you what to think is pure entitlement. You just don't want to be criticised for your choices. Well, Thom, you're the biggest band in the world and have gotten pretty rich off it. Plus you've been politically outspoken yourself over the years. Now you want the right to do what you want without being criticised? That's pure entitlement. ... You seem to think the call to BDS comes from a group of artists rather than Palestinian civil society. It is the Palestinian people who have asked you to boycott and if you're going to justify your show in Tel Aviv it is them you should be addressing.

Many musicians have aligned with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Brian Eno barred an Israeli dance company from using his music after it was revealed that the Israeli embassy was sponsoring the performance. Waters signed a petition in November asking the Chemical Brothers to withdraw from performing in Tel Aviv. The Radiohead petition also includes signatures from Thurston Moore, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, and more.