Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters wages boycott campaign against Israel

The singer and bassist of the rock band Pink Floyd Roger Waters, 67, has become the latest artist to advocate a boycott of Israel, which he accused of operating on a "two-tiered racist system". In a blog post explaining why he had taken that decision, he said he felt he would be standing “in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine, but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their government’s racist and colonial policies.” Waters was quoted by the ‘Toronto Sun’ as saying: "I'm against Israel for exactly the same reasons that I was against South Africa: it's a two-tiered racist system. They [the Israelis] have pass books [and] they have to carry identity cards that say whether they're a Jew or an Arab. It's insane. I'm calling on my fellow musicians and artists to join the BDS campaign against Israel. I've finally decided to put my head above the parapet. Enough is enough."

The Pink Floyd front man declared: "They [the Israelis] pay lip service to the idea that they want to make peace with the Palestinians, and there's lots of talk around the possibility of a two-state solution. But, in the meantime, they're throwing people out of their homes in the Negev and East Jerusalem and they're annexing huge parts of the West Bank... They're quietly getting on with taking over the whole of the land. And what happens then to the Palestinians?"

It is not the first time Waters has spoken out against Israel. Last year, he upset Jewish groups with an offensive video, played on a big screen behind him during his ‘The Wall’ concerts. He also claimed that Israel was keeping children “chronically malnourished” with the naval blockade of Gaza and said about the Israeli security barrier: “The wall is an appalling edifice to behold.” In 2006, when visiting Bethlehem, Waters also accused “young Israeli soldiers” of treating him with “disdainful aggression.”