Roger Waters assailed actress Scarlett Johansson for working with SodaStream and musician Neil Young for his planned performance in Israel.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the former Pink Floyd front man said he was making a public plea to Johansson and Young after writing to them privately in recent days.
Waters has publicly called for boycotts against Israel and made personal pleas to artists not to perform in Israel. Young is scheduled to perform in Israel in July.
Johansson last week ended her relationship with the human rights group Oxfam following a protracted debate over her role as spokeswoman for the Israeli company SodaStream, which has a factory in the West Bank. The factory employs Israeli and Palestinian workers.
In his public letter, Waters said Johansson’s “choice of Soda Stream over Oxfam” is “an act of intellectual, political, and civil about face, that we, all those of us who care about the downtrodden, the oppressed, the occupied, the second class, will find it hard to rationalize.”
The letter cites alleged human rights abuses by Israel against the Bedouin living in southern Israel and poses several questions about how Palestinians live under Israeli rule in the West Bank.
He concludes his letter, which mostly is directed at Johansson, by saying, “Scarlett, you are undeniably cute, but if you think SodaStream is building bridges towards peace you are also undeniably not paying attention.”