Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa open the Oud Festival with a band of 17

Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa opened the Jerusalem International Oud Festival, named for the oud, a fretless lute, at the Jerusalem Theatre on Thursday. They led a band of 17, playing from Jarak Qaribak, the 2023 album on which they reworked classic Arabic love songs with rock. Jessica Steinberg of The Times of Israel counts 18 songs in about 90 minutes. Tassa opened with “El Hajar” and sang six; singers from Baghdad and Nazareth sang many of the numbers. On 29 October PACBI, the Palestinian cultural-boycott campaign, had called for a boycott of the festival and of Greenwood's concerts, Radiohead's included.

Greenwood played guitar and bass. His wife, Sharona Katan, played keyboards; Omri Katan, their daughter, was one of two backing singers. David Brinn of the Jerusalem Post writes that Greenwood played as one of the band, though most eyes were on him.

Before the band came on, the festival's artistic director, Effie Benaya, greeted Israel's culture minister, Miki Zohar. Steinberg reports that part of the crowd booed the minister, who has threatened to pull state funding from the arts.

Tassa told the crowd that, given the world outside, it had been unclear whether the night would go ahead, and that the past month had brought angry political talk; then he pointed to Greenwood, his British friend, and the crowd roared. Music is the thing that we all love. You don’t have to agree about everything and everyone can have their opinion, but accept the opinions of others; it’s okay.¹