Roger Waters attacks Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood over stance on Israel-Palestine: “There is no argument to be made”

nme.com:

Roger Waters has attacked Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood for their stance on the Israel-Palestine issue.The Pink Floyd co-founder has been a vocal supporter of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement since 2011, and has spoken out in the past against Radiohead’s decision to play a gig in Tel Aviv in 2017.He signed an open letter at the time, alongside the likes of Thurston Moore, Young Fathers and Ken Loach, urging the band not to play in Israel as “a system of apartheid has been imposed on the Palestinian people”.In a new interview, Waters has returned to the debate, revealing that he had an email exchange with Yorke after signing that letter.

He has also renewed his criticism of the band’s position on the highly contentious situation.Speaking to The Empire Files podcast, Waters said: “I wrote [Yorke] a sort of email that went, ‘I’m sorry if you thought I was being confrontational’.

He wrote back and he said, ‘Normally, people on one side of an argument at least have the decency or the grace or the something to have a conversation.’”“So then I wrote him back, and I said, ‘Thom, the people in BDS have been trying to have a conversation with you for months!

And so have I!’”Asked how the conversation concluded, Waters replied: “That the guy’s a complete prick!”The interview went on to more recent issues, including an incident where Yorke clashed with a pro-Palestinian protester and left the stage at a show in Melbourne in October.“I think he’s damaged,” Waters said about the Radiohead frontman. “He’s very damaged.