Roger Waters defends BDS, says Yorke misinterpreted his intentions
Roger Waters, the celebrity most identified with the boycott movement responded to Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, who said last weekend that he did not agree with a cultural boycott; according to Waters, Yorke "had misinterpreted my attempt to start a conversation."
After Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke slammed BDS's attempts to cancel their appearance in Israel, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, the celebrity most synonymous with the anti-Israeli boycott movement, responded to Yorke's criticism in a statement to Rolling Stone.
In the statement to the Rolling Stone magazine, Waters argued that, contrary to Yorke's statements, the appeal to him was not only public but personal. "On February 12, hoping to start a dialogue, I sent an email expressing my concern about Radiohead crossing the BDS picket line to perform in Israel. A few hours later, Thom replied. He was angry. He had misinterpreted my attempt to start a conversation as a threat."
According to Pink Floyd, attempts were made on his part to reach a dialogue with Yorke, but Radiohead's singer-songwriter "had misinterpreted my attempt to start a conversation as a threat." Waters claims that Yorke angrily answered him before interrupting their communication.
"I have made every effort to engage with you personally," said Waters, who noted that on June 5, 50 years would have passed since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians. "Fifty years living under military occupation. Fifty years for a people with no civil rights. Fifty years of no recourse to the law. Fifty years of apartheid."
"The BDS picket line exists to shine a light on the predicament of the occupied people of Palestine, both in Palestine and those displaced abroad," explained Waters, adding that the purpose of BDS is to also "promote equal civil rights for all the people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea no matter what their nationality, race or religion (is)."
(Translated & edited by Lior Mor)
