Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke briefly left the stage during a solo concert in Australia on Wednesday after he was heckled by a protester who demanded he condemn Israel's war in Gaza. It was difficult to make out the protester over the crowd gathered at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl, but the man was heard referring to "the Israeli genocide of Gaza" and the death toll, noting "half of them were children." Yorke invited the protester to speak on stage. "Don't stand there like a coward, come here and say it. You want to piss on everybody's night?" he said, per the Guardian. The protester only responded, "How many dead children will it take for you to condemn the genocide in Gaza?"
"OK, you do it, see you later then," said Yorke, who then walked offstage. He returned to cheers minutes later to sing his last song of the night, Radiohead's "Karma Police." Radiohead previously refused calls to cancel shows in Israel, while Yorke criticized the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement intended to use economic and cultural boycotts to compel Israel to change its policies toward Palestinians. "I don't agree with the cultural ban at all," Yorke told Rolling Stone in 2017 as he took criticism for not canceling a concert and university lecture in Israel. "It's like, really? You can't go talk to other people who want to learn stuff in another country? ... And you think that's gonna help?"
In a statement around the same time, Yorke said, "Playing in a country isn't the same as endorsing the government ... We don't endorse [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America." The band has faced growing pressure to boycott Israel over the past year, per the Guardian. But the protester at Wednesday's show did not have the support of the crowd, which booed him, one attendee tells the BBC. "He was escorted away by security," the woman said. "He then continued to engage with people outside the venue as well." (More Thom Yorke stories.)
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