THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2014 06:15 PM UTC
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Nick Mason: Why Rolling Stones shouldn’t play in Israel
Band's founding members come together to argue in favor of the BDS movement -- and urge the Stones to reconsider
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| Roger Waters at Earls Court, London. Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason joined the group, alongside drummer Graham Broad for Dark Side during the Saturday show. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: Mick Jagger with The Rolling Stones 1972 tour at Winterland in San Francisco, in June (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Roger Waters (Credit: AP/Vadim Ghirda)
With the recent news that the Rolling Stones will be playing their first-ever concert in Israel, and at what is a critical time in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom and equal rights, we, the two surviving founders of Pink Floyd, have united in support of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), a growing, nonviolent global human rights movement initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005 to end Israel’s occupation, racial discrimination and denial of basic Palestinian rights.
The BDS movement is modeled on the successful nonviolent movements that helped end Jim Crow in the American South and apartheid in South Africa. Indeed, key figures who led the South African freedom struggle, like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mandela’s close associate, Ahmed Kathrada, have come out in support of BDS for Palestinian rights. BDS offers us all a way to nonviolently pressure the Israeli government to fully realize that its injustices against the Palestinian people are legally and morally unacceptable and unsustainable.
The movement does not advocate a particular political framework — one state or two — and neither do we. Rather, we call for a resolution that upholds freedom, justice and equal rights for all, irrespective of identity, and does not cause additional suffering for either people.
So, to the bands that intend to play Israel in 2014, we urge you to reconsider. Playing Israel now is the moral equivalent of playing Sun City at the height of South African apartheid; regardless of your intentions, crossing the picket line provides propaganda that the Israeli government will use in its attempts to whitewash the policies of its unjust and racist regime.
