Since becoming one of the most prominent faces in favor of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, rock star Roger Waters has come under vicious attack. Now, he’s fighting back.
In an Op-Ed piece published by Salon, Waters, who made his name with Pink Floyd, hits back against supporters of Israel calling him a bigot and anti-Semite. He writes that given his upbringing–raised by a single mom because his father died fighting the Nazis–he had “no choice” but to speak out for Palestinian rights, given that “the vulnerable Palestinian population still lives under occupation, while…more Palestinians are imprisoned, injured or killed struggling for the right to live in dignity and peace.”
Waters made waves in December when he told activist Frank Barat that Israel engaged in “ethnic cleansing and…systematic racist apartheid.” Citing journalist Max Blumenthal’s book Goliath, he also said that the “right-wing rabbinate” believes “that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human. The parallels with what went on in the 30’s in Germany are so crushingly obvious.”
Those comments sparked a furor. Right-wing Israel advocates have since engaged in a concerted campaign of character assassination to smear him as an anti-Semite. In one of the most unhinged attacks, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach said Waters engages in “blood libels” because he allegedly compares “the Jews of being the Gestapo, the SS, Hitler himself.” Waters has done no such thing. (And Boteach has been silent when prominent Israelis, like Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin or Yosef Lapid, have compared Israeli policies to that of Nazi Germany. In addition, Boteach sat silently as casino magnate Sheldon Adelson called for nuking Iran.)
The Pink Floyd member specifically addresses the furor in the Salon piece:
I do not claim to speak on behalf of the BDS movement, yet, as a vocal supporter, and because of my visibility in the music industry, I have become a natural target for those who wish to attack BDS, not by addressing the merits of its claims but, instead, by assigning hateful and racist motivations to BDS supporters like me. It has even been said, cruelly and wrongly, that I am a Nazi and an anti-Semite.
When I remarked in a recent interview on historical parallels, stating that I would not have played Vichy France or Berlin in World War II, it was not my intention to compare the Israelis to Nazis or the Holocaust to the decades-long oppression of the Palestinians. There is no comparison to the Holocaust. Nor did I intend or ever wish to compare the suffering of Jews then with the suffering of Palestinians now. Comparing suffering is a painful, grotesque and diminishing exercise that dishonors the specific memory of all our fallen loved ones.
Waters’ Op-Ed comes a week after he issued an open letter in response to Gerald Ronson, a British tycoon who recently mocked Waters in front of an audience filled with dignitaries and implied he was an anti-Semite for featuring an inflatable pig with a Star of David painted on it during concerts.
And in the U.S., another push to tar Waters with the brush of bigotry came last month, when the New York Post published a nasty swipe at him.
The author of that Post article was Craig Balsam, an indie music label co-owner and a board member of the group Creative Community for Peace (CCFP). CCFP is the Israel lobby’s answer to grassroots activists calling on entertainment stars to boycott appearing in Israel. The Post didn’t see fit to disclose that CCFP is, as Phan Nguyen reported for us, “a front for StandWithUs, the notorious right-wing pro-settler organization that works closely with the Israeli Foreign Ministry.”
Balsam’s argument targeting Waters is chock full of holes. He accuses Waters of “trading in classic anti-Semitic stereotypes,” ignoring Waters’ statement that he has “nothing against Jews or Israelis” and that the “the Holocaust was brutal and disgusting beyond our imagination.”
Balsam’s dismissal of Israel’s record of ethnic cleansing, which he called “false,” is the worst aspect of his attack. The 1948 Nakba, or catastrophe, is well-documented, and involved the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland–the very definition of ethnic cleansing. And Balsam also claims that Waters was “incorrect” in saying “that some rabbis in Israel believe that Arabs are ‘subhuman’ and exist to serve the Jews.” But in September 2010, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, then the spiritual leader of the Shas party (who recently died), said: “Goyim [non- Jews] were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world; only to serve the People of Israel.” There’s plenty more examples of state-funded Israeli rabbis making racist statements.
Balsam ends his Op-Ed with a call for Waters to face “consequences,” a veiled threat that delivers a message to other music industry stars: don’t criticize Israel.
It’s clear that Waters’ marquee name is an asset to the movement for Palestinian rights, and that pro-Israel attack dogs want to silence Waters to make an example out of him. They’re using every trick in the book to discredit and smear the BDS supporting rock star.
Waters is too much of an English gentleman in these disputes. He is constantly on the defensive, which is precisely why these tactics persist.
The problem, of course, is that if he goes on the offensive, as he did late last year, they attack him even more. So it’s a double punishment; no matter what he does they will go after him. Nevertheless, being reckless is a mistake.
There are shades of this debate to that of the debate over the “Israel lobby” term. Mearsheimer, in particular, was subjected to frenzied smear campaigns for years on end. After 5 years, he endorsed the notorious anti-Semitic book “The Wandering Jew”. I’ve stated repeatedly that I don’t think Mearsheimer is an anti-Semite, but when you are constantly attacked like that you’d have to be a masochist to just lie down and take it. Neither Mearsheimer nor Waters are one.
But we shouldn’t forget that Mearsheimer won the debate, and so is Waters.
Today the Israel lobby thesis is mainstream and support for BDS is not quite yet mainstream but it is quickly gaining ground.
We live in a sick cultural environment where Scarlett Johansson’s embrace of Apartheid is celebrated and rewarded while Waters’ oppositition to systematic racism is attacked and denigrated.
But what is life worth living for, if not to improve the world, bit by bit, step by step?
It won’t heal itself, and nobody said it was an easy task.
Yet it must be done.
@Krauss – “the notorious anti-Semitic book “The Wandering Jew””
Solid proof, please.
You’re quite free with wildly imaginative smears.
Hateful and immoral Zio-supremacists advocate for and/or defend:
– Jewish supremacism;
– Jewish colonialism (including theft of land and resources);
– Jewish terrorism;
– Jewish ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population of Palestine from their homes and lands;
– the establishment of a supremacist “Jewish State”; and
– abrogation of the “Jewish State’s” obligations under international law.
Waters advocates for justice, equality and accountability.
And hateful and immoral Zio-supremacists attack him for it, and hate him for it.
Might I suggest a new version of “Do they know it,s Christmas time at all” and Free the World”
Ie, “Free the Palestinians or Do they know it,s Apartheid, at all.
So Roger , call your fellow musicians and cut a CD. Bono and co made millions for their efforts.
BDS could use the money and Israel will hate the publicity.
I think that the only misstep in Waters remarks is the line, “There is no comparison to the Holocaust.” This is a false concession. There IS a comparison to the Holocaust. There may be no equivalence made with the Holocaust, but there are many comparisons to the Holocaust. Most importantly the core one: both the Holocaust and the Nakba prove that only evil results when a government permits one ethnic, racial or religious group to prosper at the expense of another and that only evil results when a state or people are permitted to decide that certain individuals have no rights which that state or people need to respect.