Roger Waters
is no stranger to controversy. The founding member of Pink Floyd is
an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights and the BDS movement,
but his current Us + Them tour has been met by opposition from
pro-Israel groups and a new documentary targeting his views on
Israel.
A series of
film screenings of Wish You Weren’t Here, a documentary by Ian
Halperin that accuses Waters of anti-Semitism, is scheduled in cities
across Canada in October. The screenings, sponsored by Jewish
advocacy group B’nai Brith Canada, are timed to coincide with
Waters’ own tour across the country.
Karen
Rodman, an organizer with the Canadian Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions (BDS) coalition, which calls for an international boycott
of Israel over the way it treats Palestinians and violates
international laws, said that the film’s tour is part of a wider
“smear campaign” to discredit Waters and the movement. The BDS
committee includes groups like Independent Jewish Voices and
Palestine Solidarity Network.
A Waters
concert last week in Long Island went on in spite of attempts to shut
it down by Nassau County officials who cited a local anti-BDS bill,
which passed in May 2016.
The concert
Waters held in Miami was marred by a full-page ad in the Miami Herald
paid for by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation (GMJF) with the
headline: “Anti-Semitism and Hatred Are Not Welcome in Miami.”
In what
Canada Palestine Association chair Hanna Kawas calls part of a
“co-ordinated” international campaign to discredit Waters and the
BDS movement, the GMJF wrote:
“Your
vile messages of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and hatred are not
welcome in our community,” adding, “Mr Waters, stop openly
calling for support of a cultural boycott of Israel.”
Encouraged
by the same organization, The City of Miami Beach prevented a group
of children from a summer camp drama programme from singing on stage
with Waters. He responded in an op-ed published earlier this month in
the New York Times, headlined “Congress Shouldn’t Silence Human
Rights Advocates.”
“I
understand that city officials have a democratic right to disagree
with my opinions, but I was shocked that they were willing to take it
out on kids,” Rogers wrote.
More:
Comments
Post a Comment