The Wiesenthal Center has blasted Amnesty International for selecting Roger Waters to present the International Human rights group’s upcoming ‘Ambassador of Conscience’ award, as first blogged on Israellycool three days ago.
Wiesenthal Center Blasts Amnesty International’s Selection of Roger Waters to Present NGO’s Top Human Rights Award
AI’s fight for human rights apparently doesn’t extend to anti-Semitism
Jerusalem
September 18, 2013The Simon Wiesenthal Center blasted Amnesty International for selecting Roger Waters to present the International Human rights group’s upcoming ‘Ambassador of Conscience’ award.
“Once again, Amnesty International is signaling that its fight for human rights apparently does not extend to anti-Semitism,” charged Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
“Instead of denouncing Roger Waters for his bigotry, Amnesty International places him center-stage of their human rights celebration; the same Roger Waters who brazenly floats a pig with a Jewish Star of David at concerts across Europe, including Germany and Warsaw and who is a leading campaigner promoting a cultural boycott of Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy,” Cooper added.
“In 2001, as one of the spokesman for beleaguered Jewish groups at the ill-fated UN World Conference Against Racism, I experienced first hand Amnesty’s silence and indifference as 3,900 NGOs debased an important global conference into the worst public anti-Israel hate fest since the end of World War II.”
“Today, instead of commending Israel for its humanitarian treatment of injured Syrian combatants and civilians; instead on focusing on the gassing of Syrian children and mounting human rights abuses in the Arab world; Amnesty Iinternational has chosen to elevate someone who abuses Israel and insults Jewish values and symbols,” Rabbi Cooper concluded.
In the meantime, Waters is apparently capable of admitting he has been wrong.
But not for antisemitic imagery and demonizing Israel.
Roger Waters regrets suing his former Pink Floyd bandmates in the mid-Eighties over use of the group’s name. Calling the group a “spent force creatively,” Waters took guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason to court in 1986 to prevent them from performing or recording as Pink Floyd, which prompted an ugly back-and-forth in the press.
“I was wrong,” the singer, songwriter and bassist told the BBC. “Of course I was. Who cares?”
