Last night, at Park HaYarkon in Tel Aviv, Israel, Radiohead played their longest concert in 11 years, the BBC reports. The show had been mired in controversy: In the preceding months, artists such as Roger Waters—supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) against Israel—publicly criticized the group. Before playing “Karma Police,” Thom Yorke briefly addressed the backlash: “A lot was said about this, but in the end we played some music.” Watch video below.

In June, Yorke responded to the controversy—most notably, a petition signed by Thurston Moore, Roger Waters, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, and others—by saying the criticism was “patronizing” and “offensive” as well as singling out Roger Waters. He later released a statement in response to criticism from director Ken Loach: “We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments…As we have in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”

Earlier this week, Waters continued to call out Yorke, stating he ignored emails from multiple people (including Brian Eno) and that his “isolationism” was “extremely unhelpful to everybody.” The next day, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe made an Instagram post in support of Radiohead’s decision to play Israel. “Let’s hope a dialogue continues, helping to bring the occupation to an end and lead to a peaceful solution,” he wrote.

Artists for Palestine UK—the group who organized the petition against Radiohead’s concert—released a follow-up statement, saying Yorke “once again fails to make any mention of the Palestinians who suffer under Israel’s regime.” Film director Mike Leigh later released his own personal statement in critique of Yorke’s defensiveness. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) also took a shot at the band, accusing them of “professing to know better than [Palestinian people], in a classic colonial attitude.”

Source: www.yahoo.com