Roger Waters, co-founder of the British rock band Pink Floyd (who has since been banned from the band over his antisemitism), on Tuesday, lashed out at the attempts to cancel Russian culture in the West, saying it’s completely idiotic and insane when Western nations refuse to cooperate with Russian artists and musicians.
Waters told TASS: “It’s completely idiotic. And just shows the way these people’s brains were, to ban concerts of Tchaikovsky’s music or tell people they can’t read Dostoyevsky. It’s insane, obviously.”
It probably is, about as insane as Waters’ attempts to ban Israeli art and artists in service of the BDS movement. In 2015, Waters published an open letter in Salon criticizing Rock musician Bon Jovi for performing in Tel Aviv. He ran a petition in 2017 urging Radiohead to cancel a 2017 concert in Israel. Also in 2017, he co-signed an open letter to Nick Cave asking him to cancel his concerts in Tel Aviv. Cave did not cancel the concerts.
Waters narrated the 2016 documentary The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States, about the “methods used by Israel to shape American public opinion” (his version of the Jews controlling the media conspiracy theory). In 2020, Waters said Israel was responsible for the murder of George Floyd because the IDF taught US police officers the restriction techniques used in the murder.
In short, everything for which he blames the West about boycotting Russia, Waters has done to Israel and Jewish organizations for close to 20 years now.
Waters complained that Russian athletes are deprived of the opportunity to participate in international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine. He said that two weeks ago, he had sent a letter to President of European Soccer Aleksander Ceferin, about the unjustified suspension of Russian clubs and teams from participation in tournaments. He wondered why similar measures were not taken against Israel due to its actions “in Palestine.”
In late February, FIFA and UEFA temporarily suspended Russian football clubs and teams from participating in international competitions over the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian national team was unable to compete for a ticket to the 2022 World Cup in the qualifying games.
In February 2020, B’nai B’rith criticized the showing of ads for Waters’ This Is Not a Drill concert series by Major League Baseball, which sponsored his US tour. B’nai B’rith wrote Commissioner Rob Manfred and recited Waters’ vicious attacks on Israel which they insisted “far exceed the boundaries of civil discourse.” The league stopped running the tour ads on all its platforms and cut its ties to Waters.
Couldn’t happen to a nastier guy.
