Former Pink Floyd Member Appalled by Israel’s Apartheid Wall
AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen
Several news sources have reported on an Associated Press interview with former Pink Floyd member and co-founder Roger Waters, who expressed sincere revulsion after being exposed to Israel’s Apartheid Wall while visiting the West Bank refugee camp of Aida, in Bethlehem yesterday.
People who haven’t actually seen this, what’s going on here, can’t actually imagine the impression that it has on you, the sick, kind of churning feeling that you get in your very heart when you see this, how depressing it is.
He added:
I am not of the Bono school, who goes around the world being nice to everyone. When I have bad words to say I say them…Voting doesn’t mean shit unless everybody has a vote and everyone can move around freely… there should be no checkpoints. All this checkpoint bullshit is a method of your government to control, not only the Palestinians but you as well.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, who was famously left stunned by Channel 4′s Alex Thomson when he was directly questioned about Israel’s latest 1 month killing spree in Gaza, responded with his usual nonchalant chiding of anyone who dares to criticize Israel:
We don’t need no education about suicide bombers coming into Israel and murdering innocent people, and how the security barrier has prevented that by more than 95 percent.
Regev did not explain how this percentage is calculated or verified. He also failed to mention Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, its targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders, its torture and jailing of thousands of Palestinian children and adults, its occupation of and settlement on Palestinian land and its continued siege of ravaged Gaza.
Waters was however committed to speaking out, even at the expense of losing popularity among pro-war and pro-occupation fans:
When you stand in front of an edifice like this, whether it’s here or outside a township in South Africa, or in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, or in Berlin in the 60s and 70s, it’s something you know instinctively that this is wrong…what’s it doing in the occupied territories, surrounding settlements and cutting (Palestinian) farmers off from their olive trees and so on and so forth?…This is an exercise of colonialism.
Several sites have already started attacking Waters for his bold initiative, but he has nevertheless promised to perform at the site of the Apartheid Wall when it is brought down.
Waters is one among a small but growing number of artists who are not afraid to sacrifice their fame and fortune for their beliefs.
For more information on an important campaign against Israel’s Apartheid Wall, go here.
Hats off to Waters and all those who dare speak out against injustice/discrimination and plain inhumanity!
MD
June 3, 2009 at 5:57 am
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July 25, 2009 at 3:02 pm
THANK YOU ROGER. BESIDES BEING A FLOYD FAN SINCE THE DAYS OF ATOM HEART AND UMMAGUMMA, YOU PROVE YOUR VALUE AS A HUMAN BEING AS WELL AS AN ARTIST.
I am also a Leonard Cohen fan and have lost great respect for his stance on performing in Israel.
I have posted some photos of Roger in a few pieces lately but did not realize quite how strong his stance was.
I have often thought what a site for an international rock show to draw attention to this fabulously hateful regime and its wall of greed. This wall has been ignored or accepted by Americans even while their own government ignores the deaths of its own people as they watch or participate in peaceful demonstrations.
Roger has spoken. He is just a man despite all the trappings of rock stardom. But his word has a little clout but you can bet this action is not given press in the West. It all depends on who owns the media and we all know who that is. We also know that they can threaten to shut him up and down as an artist, but his career speaks for itself.
Do you think they might assassinate him as they have Tupac, Bob Marley or Michael Jackson? Or John Lennon or any of the others who dared speak out?
Barbara
July 27, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Roger, you are trully an artist and a fantastic human being full of “largesse”. You tell the whole truth which always hurt one side or another in a conflict. Your ‘harsh’ words full of wisdom mean that you are a real friend to both Palestinians and Israelis. One day, when it would probably be too late, Israel will warmly remember people like Ishak Rabin and yourself amongst others. God bless!
Allen
February 12, 2010 at 8:02 am
[...] Dream of Balloons By matangmanok Leave a Comment Categories: Imperialism, Influences, Middle East, politics and terrorism Tags: Basky, international condemnation of Israeli atrocities, Israeli apartheid, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters When you stand in front of an edifice like this, whether it’s here or outside a township in South … [...]
Dream of Balloons « Matangmanok
June 2, 2010 at 10:37 am