If there’s one thing Roger Waters knows, it’s that Israelis hate peace. This was the key message from the former Pink Floyd frontman at a panel last month at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Joining him were former CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill, Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour, and Dave Zirin, a sports writer at The Nation, who quipped that he was there as the token Jew.
The event, called “Not Backing Down,” was billed as a panel on how it’s possible to stand against Israel’s occupation while also standing against anti-Semitism. But it was really just a giant rally for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
Though I’m not a BDS supporter, I found myself moved by the first three speeches, by their passion and their reasons. It wasn’t until Waters mounted the podium that things took a turn. He began with a vignette that seemed to represent for him all the truth one needs to know about Israel and Palestine in just a few short sentences.
The story took place in 2006, after Waters accepted an invitation to play in Tel Aviv and got a lot of flack from pro-Palestinian activists. In response to their censure, Waters moved the concert to a model village where Arab and Jewish Israelis live together called Neve Shalom or Wahat al-Salam. The concert was staged in a bean field in order to accommodate some 60,000 concert-goers.
So far so good. But then the story shifted. “They spent the whole night going like they do,” Waters said, pantomiming fans enthusiastically waving their arms in the air, “until we got to the end of the evening, when I said — I stood up in front of all that, and said, ‘You are the generation of young Israelis who must make peace with your brothers and sisters in the neighborhood and bring in a new era of ‘etcetera etcetera etcetera.’ And they went from, [here, Waters waved his arms again overhead] to ‘what the fuck’s he talking about?’ [here, Waters crossed his arms and scowled] – in a heartbeat. And it was one of the most chilling sights I’ve ever seen in my life.”
You can watch Waters tell the story here:
This vignette of 60,000 Israelis going from cheering wildly to scowling in silence when urged to make peace seemed to sum up everything Waters thought we needed to know about Israel.
But to me, the story seemed suspicious. 60,000 people instantly reacting the same way to any political issue is improbable enough, but 60,000 Israelis? Impossible, especially when the audience would have included supporters of Neve Shalom as well as Palestinian Israelis.
It took me a few days and the help of Israeli friends to locate an audio recording of the 2006 concert. What happened at the moment Waters mentioned peace-making was pretty much the opposite of what Waters described.
“We can’t lose this opportunity to thank you all so much for coming to Neve Shalom, the village of peace,” Waters says, to wild cheering. “It means a great deal to them, and also to me.” More wild cheering. “And, I may be speaking out of turn, but I believe that we, the rest of the world, need this generation of Israelis to tear down the walls and to make peace with their neighbors.”
Here the cheering grows even louder.
“We love you for it, and we hope to come back.”
You can listen for yourself starting at 2:01:30.
In real life, Waters’ words of peace were met with the same verve and joy as his music.
Since at least 2017, Waters has been repeating his lie. He told it to an interviewer from the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of Germany’s largest dailies. He told it to Liberation News, a socialist newspaper. He told it at a Vancouver event in October 2017 to promote Canada’s participation in BDS.
David Seidenberg did what used to be called INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING.
Too bad we have so few doing it today.
He doubted the story and was able to get to the bottom of it.
How much of BDS is built on similar lies?
A lot.
The so-called genocide of “palistinians” is belied by the incredible population growth of such people both inside West Bank & Gaza as well as inside all of those refugee camps in foreign lands. And why not put down roots where you, your parents, your grandparents and your great-grandparents were born, even if it is Jordan, Egypt, Syria, etc?
Ever see that Star Trek about the Kelvans?
They left their home planet for another and, after so many new generations born in space, had no idea what their ancestors were really like, or would want.
At some point, you have to take responsibility for your own success in life and quit blaming the past.
That’s quite a trick when they are only opposed to Israel and blame them for the terrorist attacks against themselves because of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is why they have to lie to make their point.
Yeah, Israel loves to fight. Since they outnumber all their opponents and have such abundant natural resources, they want to take over the entire region, no doubt. Leftist racists can’t even be clever in selling their racism.