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Waters is notoriously anti-Israel and, some say, an anti-Semite. His most recent statements comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany appear to strengthen that accusation.
Notorious anti-Israel activist Roger Waters has stepped up his criticism of Israel, comparing Israel’s policies to those of Nazi Germany.
In a live chat on the BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) official Facebook page on Saturday, together with BDS movement leader Omar Barghouti, Waters claimed there is practically no regime in the world crueler than Israel’s.
“I’m not sure there are any much harsher regimes around the world, actually, if you look at it,” he claimed, before contradicting himself by saying he was “particularly concerned” about Syria, where more than 350,000 civilians have been killed during the ongoing civil war.
However, Waters did not elaborate as to whether the Syrian regime is a worse human rights violator than the Jewish state.
The British musician also expressed concern about Ukraine, but added that he did not want to “demonize the Russians.” By contrast, Waters did not articulate similar concerns regarding more than eight million Israeli citizens.
According to the Pink Floyd musician, dialogue with Israeli artists would be meaningless.
“I think that artists who say that they can somehow improve the situation by going and playing in Israel and having conversations with Israeli artists” are wrong, he stated, alluding to Radiohead’s defiant determination to perform in Israel, despite pressure to boycott it.
“I’ll tell you why I think they’re wrong, and that is because there are many, many Israeli Jews who are part of the BDS movement… and any of those people will say, ‘No, I don’t want to sit around a campfire with you, what I want you to do is not cross the picket line.’”
‘Hard Not to Go Back to Goebbels’
Waters described Israelis as a “a population that have largely been under a state of living in propaganda 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all their lives since they were born.”
Asked about South Africans who reject his comparison of Israel to the former apartheid state, he replied that his critics are “entirely ignorant” and subjected to Nazi-style propaganda.
“It’s hard not to go back to [Joseph] Goebbels,” Waters said, speaking of the Nazi minister of propaganda.
The British musician did not express any support of a similar boycott of other countries like the US and the Trump Administration, with whose policies he disagrees.
“If I didn’t play in the US it would have absolutely no effect on American foreign policy,” Rogers said. “Boycott is a very specific strategy and tactic that you can use as a tool of protest in very certain specific situations… it’s a realistic tactic to affect the government and the people of Israel.”
Waters did not discuss how the BDS movement had influenced Israeli foreign policiy. He insisted that Israel was becoming a “pariah state,” but declined to comment on the steady stream of prominent artists who continue to perform in the Jewish state.
Waters is notoriously anti-Israel and, some say, an anti-Semite. He regularly utilizes his concerts to blast the Jewish State and promote actions against it.
He has voiced support for the Hamas terror organization. He regularly exerts public pressure on performers slated to appear in Israel, demanding they cancel the show, which he claims would generate pressure on Israel’s “Apartheid” and “criminal” government. In many cases he is ignored and fails in his mission.
By: Dan Goldman, United with Israel
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