Former Pink Floyd Frontman Roger Waters Supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement Against Israel

Roger Waters Ignites New War of Words With Political Stance on Israel

October 13, 2015

Variety - Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters had some very strong words for rock star Jon Bon Jovi before the latter’s Oct. 3 concert in Tel Aviv.

“You stand shoulder to shoulder with the settler who burned the baby,” he wrote in an open letter to the rocker that went viral across U.S. and Israeli media. “The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored.”

His sentiments were not surprising to anyone familiar with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a pro-Palestinian campaign that encourages an embargo of Israel’s economic and cultural exports, levying political and economic pressure on Israel in a bid to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

For years Waters has been one of the industry’s most vocal critics of Israel, and he routinely takes it upon himself to publicly excoriate artists who defy his calls to nix concerts in the Jewish state.

Artists from Rihanna to Justin Timberlake have been targeted by the BDS movement for playing concerts in Tel Aviv, and Scarlett Johansson found herself facing criticism after she signed on as a spokesperson for SodaStream, the Israeli company previously based in the West Bank (it has since relocated).

But the movement has all but failed when it comes to swaying big names to boycott Israel. Madonna and the Kardashian sisters are said to be apartment hunting in Tel Aviv. Kanye West, who made a personal visit with wife Kim Kardashian and daughter North in April, returned on Sept. 30 for a sold-out show. Natalie Portman and Richard Gere both recently wrapped Israel-based film projects, and Israeli TV exports continue to penetrate the U.S. and European market.

However, the movement does appear to be making headway with smaller acts.


Take, for example, the Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival in Benicassim, Spain. When Matisyahu, the Jewish-American musician, took the stage there in August, he was greeted by a sea of Palestinian flags, boos and heckles.

He almost hadn’t made it to the show. Fest organizers, under pressure from a local branch of the BDS movement, had earlier nixed Matisyahu’s performance after he refused to publicly declare support for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The decision immediately set off a firestorm of festival criticism, with detractors declaring the move anti-Semitic, not anti-Israel. No other artist, they pointed out, had been asked their views on a potential state of Palestine, and leaders of the World Jewish Congress wrote Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy directly to condemn the move. The fest eventually reversed its decision, and Matisyahu — who is not an Israeli citizen — performed. But as he sang “Jerusalem,” a huge group of Palestinian supporters waved Palestinian flags and chanted “Out, Out!”

In the days following Matisyahu’s exclusion from the fest, pundits in Israel asserted that the incident publicly confirmed what many pro-Israel activists have long said: The BDS movement has transposed “Jewish” with “Israeli.”

“Let there be no ‘ifs,’ ‘buts’ or ‘maybes,’” says Arsen Ostrovsky, the director of research at the Israeli-Jewish Congress. “After Matisyahu the BDS mask has well and truly been lifted for what it really is, and that’s nothing to do with promoting peace or Palestinian rights, but Jew hatred, plain and simple.”

Matisyahu’s disinvitation from the fest came just a few days after Roy Zafrani, a documentary helmer based in Tel Aviv, learned that his short film “The Other Dreamers” had been rejected from Norway’s Human Rights Human Wrongs film festival simply for being Israeli.

“We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel,” Ketil Magnussen, founder of Oslo Documentary Cinema, which runs the fest. 

Magnussen explained that he could show Israeli-based films that focused only on Gaza and the West Bank.Zafrani’s film follows a group of special-needs children in the Jewish state.

In the end, the BDS movement continues to call out artists, but most, like Bon Jovi, who played to a rapturous Tel Aviv crowd, ignore their call.

Meanwhile, Waters’ remarks stilled echoed across the U.S. media landscape.

“Israel has a little tiny country, and it bugs the shit out of Roger Waters,” said radio personality Howard Stern, who is Jewish, as part of a seven-minute blasting of Waters on his show Oct. 6. “Where do you want the Jews to go, Roger? You want them just to go back to the concentration camps? … Jews, go to the dark side of moon and live.”

Comments from Variety Readers:

"The UN has called for a Palestinian state yet Israel keeps violating international law by expanding the settlements in the West Bank. Yes, the Palestinians hate Israel. Wouldn’t you if someone took your home and land and kept you behind a fence like an animal. Israels military is out of control and will eventually start WW3 if not checked. But they own, control, and manipulate about every major corporation in the US, so Wall Street and our puppet government will follow them to hell and back. One of the reasons I do not live in Amerika anymore." - Bill

"This whole Israel vs Palestine tragedy is totally buttocks-backwards political issue, as the irredentism of Askenazi Jewish diaspora claim that to be their “ancestral homeland”, and using overwhelming military might from USA-EU military industrial complex sources to evict and create Apartheid against the native Semitic people who’ve been living their for 100 generations, and then building illegal settlements (human shields) against Palestinian reprisals… this is a terribly inhumane travesty of justice and crime against humanity." - Johnny Chan


"BDS is building…no one should be fooled by a few big name stars who haven’t got the message that anti-Semitism is just one aspect of racism and oppression…anyone who has been watching Israeli policy and behavior since 1948 toward the Palestinians they dispossessed shouldn’t be surprised that there are still a few uninformed ‘stars’ who feel they are too big to actually take a stand against the abuse of human rights and human dignity. It’s very telling that most of these ‘stars’ are from the United States, where the Zionist, ‘pro-Israel at all cost’ propaganda machine has everyone except the informed turned inside-out and upside-down." -Carl Zaisser

"BDS is a peaceful method of teaching the Zionists that they are doing something very evil to the Palestinian people. This is a proper method of dealing with tyranny when all you have is a microphone." - Kate Moon (@ExcellentElixir)

"Everybody with an ear for genuinely good music knows full well that pseudo mega-stars like Rihanna, Timberlake, Bon Jovi or actors Johansson, (Kardashian), Portman are all mediocre at their craft and have gained fame thanks to the Jewish network that has such a strong hold over the entertainment world (that’s a fact not some kind of anti-Semitic myth). That they lack integrity doesn’t bother them, cheap fame and money are more important to them. At the same time as they are modishly giving a megaphone to condemning Trump for his remarks on illegal immigration or attacking those who talk of a “Christian America” or condemning police brutality against blacks, or attacking white racism for stealing the land of Native americans and the slave trade, they find no problem in supporting a country that proclaims itself as a “Jewish state,” has the most restrictive immigration policy in the world, gives an official green light to the summary execution of kids throwing rocks or beatings to the pulp, condones illegal and immoral land grabs, treats people unequally, is the center of trafficking in women. As the all Jewish saying goes, money trumps all other things." - Lorry Taylor

"Why should we help the Palestinians at all. These Islamist killers were cheering “Death to America” and burning American flags and effigies of our leaders in the streets when 9/11 took place. They love to blame Israel as being terrorists, but what does Israel have to do with the slaughtering, raping and kidnapping of those who want to be educated in Nigeria, Kenya, Somalia, Afganistan, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. Islam is a plague which must be eliminated. Their whole goal in life is to destroy everyone who does not bow down to Allah. In Islamic law all Non-Muslims are inherently guilty of committing the crime of not believing in Allah, which is punishable by death. According to Islam all Non-Muslim lands are Dar ul-Harb (land of war) countries that are to be attacked until they are conquered by Islam, and the whole world belongs to Islam; the Kufar (infidels) have no right to exist on Allah’s Earth." - Jim Keating

"If Israel controlled the world, we’d live in a Paradise. 22 Arab muslim coutries, all garbage. the arabs got 99.6 percent of the middle east, Israel got 0.4 percent, and little Israel contributes more good to the world than the entire arab craphole group, plus half of Europe. See a proctologist so you have your head removed from your arse." - jon gans

"Do you know that Israel calls itself the 'Jewish state'? Israel is a theocracy. In essence it is no different from Iran in that religions are the controlling factors. Comments here are laden with bigotry, principally directed at Arabs. This kind have grown so accustomed to hating anyone of different cultures because they have found total acceptance from within. They see yourselves as ones who are never wrong and can do no wrong." - Terry Lamb

"I see nothing wrong with criticizing Jews / Israeli’s / Zionists whatever the Hell you want to call them…they are blasting the Hell out of any kind of Palestinian descent, depriving them of their Homeland just so they can have their’s…what’s wrong with descent on Mr Waters behalf ? oh yea it’s not propagandizing for the Jews / Israeli’s / Zionists whatever the Hell you want to call them !!!" - Curtis Johnson

"Simply put, the American public is utterly ignorant of Israel’s apartheid and cruel treatment of the Palistinian population. Howard Stern’s idiotic statement is typical of the American archaic viewpoint of Israel as victim. This isn’t 1940. Israel is an incredibly wealthy country backed by its big benevolent brother America. Despite Israels egregious expansion and subjugation of the Palistinians, the US refuses to take Israel to task. No one is suggesting the Jews go anywhere but they do ask that they adhere to the UN human rights conventions. The illegal occupation of Palistinian lands and the continued settlement by Jewish extremists has gone unchecked by the US – which is the only possible broker of peace. Any American who speaks up (Pres. Jimmy Carter is a very good example) has been demonized in the most shocking way. Waters is to be commended. He speaks out while others take the safe way out. Its easy to talk about horrors committed in the past but few speak out when its need. Well done Mr. Waters." - James

"Mr. Waters is right to support BDS. BDS is the moral and just response to Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing through settlements. Israel must cease its relentless and violent obsession with destroying Palestine and subjugating the indigenous Christian and Muslim population. Mr. Water’s non-violent approach is a refreshing difference from Israeli violence." - Slayton Cruz

"Good for Roger Waters, I also support Boycotting Israel (in full) as it is an obvious apartheid state built on ethnic cleansing using bronze age bales and religious doctrine to justify stealing land and resources." - Kevin Mardesich

"As usual, the story becomes about Roger Waters, while the Apartheid, subjugation and cleansing of Palestinians of all walks, including a good many Christians, are ignored. Israel is certainly fortunate to have friends in the media like Variety who are experts at spin and deflecting attention toward the irrelevant, even as atrocities are routinely committed in broad daylight." - Groucho Marx

"What we are watching is a Holocaust and an ethnic cleansing campaign. The Palestinians have been occupied for 60+ YEARS!!! Can anyone imagine what that must be like??? Starved, beaten, tortured, and killed daily.I could go on and on it is sickening." - Freedom888

"Whoever is Just and has Humanity should not support the Brutal Occupation of Palestine. Israel is the only Colonialist and Brutally keeping an Occupation Blantly ignoring UN Security Council Resolution on Occupation. Israel is clearly an Apartheid State. Only Solution to the Conflict is the Ending of the Brutal Occupation Period." - M Reza

"Zionist hasbara trolls always claim “there is no such thing as Palestine” – yeah right, and as if there was such a thing as “Israel” before Palestine. No one ever recognized “Israel” as any country, yet before 1948 Palestine was an official and legal region under British rule. That is of course, until illegal European settlers arrived armed with modern weapons and endless funds to forcibly kick out the indigenous populace and renaming Palestine to “Israel”. Ironically, the people calling themselves “Israeli” neither have historic connection to Palestine, nor the fabricated “Israel”. Again, Roger Waters knows his history, and more importantly knows when abhorrent human rights violations are being committed. So God bless Roger Waters!" - Viva Roger

"The Israeli Govt feels it’s okay to shoot and kill Palestinians protesters now, since bombing them out of their homes and killing many of the families wasn’t enough. Israeli Govt is responsible for killing nearly 4000, mostly women and children this year. Bombed out neighborhoods still sit demolished with much suffering of the people living in the war zones, while illegal Israeli occupiers continue to bulldoze their homes so they can move onto more of the Palestinian land. Will Americans just fold their arms and look away, or finally do something about it?" - Dorothy (@MrCatStubble)

"Palestine wasn’t the Zionist’s first choice to live starting back in 1889 with Zionist Hertzl. Zionist actually considered Cyprus, Argentina. Just think how much better the world would be had the so-called state of Israel not been created." - Dorothy (@MrCatStubble)

"This is bullshit Ignore Israel is going back a few years when the Natzis treated Jews inhumanly. Israel takes its actions now against the Palestinians like Hiller did against the jews. What does a concentration camp mean to you the reader? Just look at how the Palestinians live in this modern society. Yet israel is so great,..with blood stained hands." - Dahan Mohamed