Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is one of the highest-profile proponents of the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it “meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.”
Ahead of his October 24 & 25 two-night run in Edmonton as part of his North American US + THEM tour, take the time to read this wide-ranging conversation with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy in Haaretz.
Why Israel, when there are so many other countries that do the same?
“Well, if you’re determined to stand on the side of truth, justice, liberty, human rights, individual freedoms, political equality, and freedom to worship whatever you want, all of that – from time to time, situations crop up that demand your attention more than other situations, because they’re blatant and they’ve been going on for a very long time. People also complain about anybody making comparisons between apartheid South Africa and Israel. But particularly in the occupied territories – but also in Israel, in my view – the comparisons are valid.
In the 1970s and ’80s, there was no question – we all focused on South Africa because it was the obvious place to focus. It was a place where it looked like all of us who took part in the Anti-Apartheid Movement, as it was called then, might have an effect, and might cause changes in policy in that small part of the world. Israel is that bit of the world now. Whether Israelis or anyone else like it or not, it just is.”
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY NETWORK 