Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa to open Jerusalem's Oud Festival

Jonny Greenwood and Dudu Tassa will open the 27th Jerusalem International Oud Festival on 5 November, The Times of Israel reports. They play from Jarak Qaribak, their 2023 album of classic Arabic love songs reworked with guest singers from Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, and from Tassa's own records. It is their first time at the festival.

Greenwood last played Israel in 2024, when a Tel Aviv concert with Tassa led the BDS movement to call for a boycott of Radiohead's next tour. In May 2025 the pair called off their UK shows, citing threats.

In Radiohead's Sunday Times Magazine interview last October, Thom Yorke said he would not play Israel while Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister, though he understood Greenwood's position given his roots there. Greenwood said the only thing he was ashamed of was dragging Yorke and the others into it. I'm not ashamed of working with Arab and Jewish musicians. I can't apologize for that¹.