It really is ridiculous, and almost amounting to censorship of a form.
Anytime anyone criticizes Israel, they face the inevitable charges of anti-Semitism by the pro-Israeli faction. It is old and tiresome and, frankly, despicable, to automatically accuse someone of being anti-Semitic because they dare to criticize Israel's dragging of it's feet in actually coming to some kind of conclusive, two-sate solution, or in the often brutal way that Palestinians are dealt with, particularly in the occupied territories.
Yet, it happens, again and again and again.
Not long ago, Roger Waters faced charges of being anti-Semitic, after the pig that flies around normally during his "The Wall" shows had, among other things, the Jewish Star of David on it. Of course, Waters had consistently been critical of organized religion (and organized, lock and step mentalities beyond religion as well) for a very long time. Yes, Roger Waters has used the Star of David, but he has also used the cross and the crescent moon in much the same manner. No charges of hating Christians or Muslims, though.
But somehow, he keeps getting accused of anti-Semitism.
Now, I've addressed this topic before, and I'll say it here again: if I really seriously thought, for even a second, that Roger Waters was an anti-Semite, I would make a point of not listening to his music anymore, and not supporting him in any way. Yet, I continue to be a fan of his, precisely because I think he has a point: some people that support the state of Israel unconditionally will react to anyone's criticism of Israel or it's foreign policy by accusing them of anti-Semitism, and there is no merit in it. It does a disservice to the threat of real anti-Semitism, especially rabid anti-Semitism. It cheapens it, when everything that someone says which is remotely critical of Israel becomes ground for charges of being a neo-Nazi, especially an artist who has always preached against hatred and violence, like Roger Waters. Shame on those who have such knee jerk reactions, without allowing themselves to delve any deeper into the issue, and for trying their best to prevent others from doing so, as well.
This most recent controversy was a result of the two remaining founding members of Pink Floyd attempting to urge the Rolling Stones from rethinking their stated plans to play in Israel for the first time ever.
Here, in part, is some of what Roger Waters and Nick Mason had to say, in their own words:
With the recent news that the Rolling Stones will be playing their first-ever concert in Israel, and at what is a critical time in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom and equal rights, we, the two surviving founders of Pink Floyd, have united in support of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), a growing, nonviolent global human rights movement initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005 to end Israel’s occupation, racial discrimination and denial of basic Palestinian rights.
The BDS movement is modeled on the successful nonviolent movements that helped end Jim Crow in the American South and apartheid in South Africa. Indeed, key figures who led the South African freedom struggle, like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mandela’s close associate, Ahmed Kathrada, have come out in support of BDS for Palestinian rights. BDS offers us all a way to nonviolently pressure the Israeli government to fully realize that its injustices against the Palestinian people are legally and morally unacceptable and unsustainable.
Here, in part, is what Rabbi Shmuely responded with, particularly focusing on Roger Waters:
I’ve read some heavy-duty attacks on Israel and Jews in my time, but they pale beside the anti-Semitic diatribe recently offered by Roger Waters, co-founder and former front man of the legendary British rock band Pink Floyd. In an interview with CounterPunch online magazine, Waters experienced a shocking Jew-hating colonic.
According to Waters, Israel is a “racist apartheid regime” that practices “ethnic cleansing.” A great artist such as himself will not play in a country equivalent to “Vichy government in occupied France.” Likening Jews to Nazi collaborators was not enough. Waters then went further, comparing Israel to the Nazis themselves. “I would not have played in Berlin either … during the Second World War.” Waters believes that Israel is guilty of genocide, only “this time it’s the Palestinian people being murdered.”
Here is some more of what Roger Waters had to say in the past on this subject, particularly in favor of BDS:
After visiting Israel in 2005 and the West Bank the following year, I was deeply moved and concerned by what I saw, and determined to add my voice to those searching for an equitable and lawful solution to the problem – for both Palestinians and Jews.
After more than two decades of negotiations, the vulnerable Palestinian population still lives under occupation, while more land is taken, more illegal settlements built, and more Palestinians are imprisoned, injured or killed struggling for the right to live in dignity and peace, to raise their families, to till their land, to aspire to each and every human goal, just like the rest of us. The Palestinians’ prolonged statelessness has made them among the most vulnerable of all peoples, particularly in their diaspora where, as now in Syria, they are subject, as stateless, powerless refugees, to targeted violence, from all sides in that bloody conflict, subject to unimaginable hardship and deprivation and, in many cases, particularly for the vulnerable young, to starvation.
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
In the furor that exists in the U.S. today about BDS and the right and wrong of a cultural boycott of Israel, a quote from one of my heroes, Mahatma Gandhi, has been on my mind. He prophetically said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” The BDS movement is fulfilling its promise and fits Gandhi’s description. Once dismissed by many as a futile strategy that would “never work,” BDS has gained much ground in recent weeks, bringing with it the expected backlash.
Divestment votes at major U.S. universities, European pension funds divesting from Israeli banks that do business with illegal Israeli settlements, and the recent high-profile parting of the ways between actor Scarlett Johansson and the global anti-poverty group Oxfam are symptoms of a growing resistance to the Israeli subjugation of the indigenous people of Palestine, and also, to the decades of occupation of land designated by the U.N. as a future state for the Palestinian people.
And with each new BDS headline, the ferocious reaction from the movement’s critics, with Netanyahu and his AIPAC fulminations in the vanguard, has risen exponentially. I think it’s safe to say BDS is in the “then they fight you” stage.
Some wrongly portray the boycott movement, which is modeled on the boycotts employed against Apartheid South Africa and used in the U.S. civil rights movement, to be an attack on the Israeli people or even on the Jewish people, as a whole. Nothing could be further from the truth. The movement recognizes universal human rights under the law for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or color.
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.
I believe that the root of all injustice and oppression has always been the same – the dehumanization of the other. It is the obsession with Us and Them that can lead us, regardless of racial or religious identity, into the abyss.
Let us never forget that oppression begets more oppression, and the tree of fear and bigotry bears only bitter fruit. The end of the occupation of Palestine, should we all manage to secure it, will mean freedom for the occupied and the occupiers and freedom from the bitter taste of all those wasted years and lives. And that will be a great gift to the world.
The following are the links that I used for this post, including all of the quotes used above:
"The Anti-Semitic Stench Of Pink Floyd" posted on 2/19/2014 by admin:
http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/02/19/the-anti-semitic-stench-of-pink-floyd/
"Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Nick Mason: Why Rolling Stones shouldn’t play in Israel"
http://www.salon.com/2014/05/01/pink_floyds_roger_waters_and_nick_mason_why_rolling_stones_shouldnt_play_in_israel/
"Roger Waters: Why I must speak out on Israel, Palestine and BDS" by Roger Waters, posted in Salon.com on March 17, 2014:
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/17/roger_waters_why_i_must_speak_out_on_israel_palestine_and_bds/
No comments:
Post a Comment