Rock’n’roll BDSHoles Roger Waters is at it again, this time trying to get Alan Parsons – who is set to perform in Israel this week – to cancel his performance and join Waters, Elvis Costello, Stephen Hawking and others on the Dark Side of the Moron.
(Photo caption: I received this photo from an Israeli friend of mine- this whole family was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza on July 21st, 2014. Hopefully people will see it, and wonder if there is a connection to BDS? There is. This is why there’s a picket line.)
I’ve been in email exchange with Alan Parsons, an English musician and recording artist, who was, coincidentally, an engineer at EMI when Pink Floyd made Dark Side of The Moon. Alan has plans for The Alan Parsons Project to play a gig in Tel Aviv on February 10, 2015. I am an active supporter of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), a non-violent global organization that seeks to promote a just solution to the disastrous Israel/Palestine impasse. I wrote to try to persuade Alan to stand with me and Nick Mason and Brian Eno and Elvis Costello and Massive Attack and Stephen Hawking and thousands of other artists world-wide who support a cultural and academic boycott of Israel to support all those brave Israelis and Palestinians who are resisting the Israeli occupation and anti-Palestinian discrimination.
This is the letter I sent a few weeks ago:
Dear Alan,
It’s been 40 years since we worked on Dark Side of the Moon together. If you recall, I was the pimply bass player, you were the tall engineer. Congratulations on your many successes since then.
The reason for my letter today is that I see you have plans to do a gig in Tel Aviv in February. I am writing to ask you to reconsider those plans. I know you to be a talented and thoughtful man, so I assume you know of the plight of the Palestinians and that there is a growing nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement protesting against the abusive policies of the Israeli government.
The BDS movement was started by Palestinian Civil Society in 2005 as a call to people of conscience to join their freedom struggle. Since then, the BDS torch has been passed from mouth to mouth, hand to hand and heart to heart and now is spread across the globe from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, from Lapland to South Africa – and inside Israel itself. In the last year in particular it has become a moral force to be reckoned with and has provided Palestinians and their allies with a means of resisting nonviolently against colonization, discrimination, and ongoing dispossession.
BDS is a means to end the 47-year occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem and achieve equal basic human and political rights for all the people – Jewish and Palestinian – inside of Israel and the occupied territories.
While I know you don’t want to disappoint your fans by canceling this gig, you would be sending a powerful message to them and the world by doing so. As with Sun City, more and more artists are standing up to say they will not perform in Israel until such time as their occupation ends and equal rights are extended to Palestinians.
I ask that you consider joining me, and hundreds of thousands of others, by lending your voice to a conversation that rejects violence, embraces international law, and helps the global community pursue a just peace for all the people of the Holy Land.
Advancing a better future for Palestinians and Israelis is a matter of fundamental importance to us all. As John Lennon observed, “Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend”. I would be happy to discuss all this with you further. More food for thought, here is the public statement Nick Mason and I issued last May referencing the similarities of this campaign to the Sun City boycott in South Africa.
Your colleague,
Roger Waters
Alan replied, but asked me not to publish his reply.
I write back to him here:
Dear Alan,
I will honor your request not to publish your response to my letter, but note that your argument is similar to that of the few other musicians who have crossed the picket line to play in Israel.
I regret that you have decided, for now at least, to stand with the minority of artists and academics who support the policies of the current Israeli government.
But, by all means, let us continue our dialogue.
I, for my part, will be open and clear. My own decision to join BDS was formed by my experience in front of the Apartheid Wall that this and previous Israeli governments have built, and continue to build. Hopefully, should you visit the occupied territories, you will have a similar moment of insight.
I see from your bio that you played in Israel in 2010, a year after Operation Cast Lead, when you might have been forgiven for not knowing any better. Now, it is a year after Operation Protective Edge, when the al-Kilani family (see photograph accompanying this post) were killed. If we didn’t know before, we do now. If you go through with your visit maybe you will be as shaken as I was back in 2006/7.
By ignoring the boycott, you are turning your back on a beleaguered people who are desperately in need of your support. Even at this late hour, please reconsider.
Your colleague,
Roger Waters
PS: I attach for your consideration two documents. The first is a Newsweek article about a report commissioned by the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights. It details Israel’s human rights violations (using human shields, etc.) during Israel’s bombing campaign against Gaza last Summer. Approximately 2,200 Palestinians, including over 500 children, were killed and more than 100,000 people were displaced from their homes.
http://www.newsweek.com/report-accuses-israel-human-rights-abuses-during-summer-war-301275
Secondly, here is a report from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, which investigated 70 incidents in Gaza. In each one, at least three people were killed inside their home.
Black Flag – The legal and moral implications of the policy of attacking residential buildings in the Gaza Strip, summer 2014
http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201501_black_flag
While Waters did not publish Alan’s response, one can deduce that he told Waters to stick his BDS where the sun don’t shine (the dark side of the moon, if you will).
Note also:
- Waters repeating the lie that BDS is about “47-year occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.” As I have demonstrated repeatedly on the blog, they want from ‘The River to the Sea” i.e. all of Israel
- Waters referring to Israeli so-called human rights violations during Operation Protective Edge, while giving Hamas and company a free pass. In fact he specifically mentions the use of human shields, which is the Gazan terrorists’ speciality
- Waters referring to 2,200 palestinians killed – which is the inflated statistic from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights for all those killed, including the terrorists.
In the meantime, I echo the call of this website here – buy or download music by the Alan Parsons project to show your appreciation for their support.
Update: Alan Parsons himself has expressed his happiness at coming to Tel Aviv – with a link to this blog post.
