Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters repeated his harsh words against Donald Trump and Israel Sunday at the end of the inaugural Desert Trip rock festival in Indio, California.
“I’m not going to allow this moment to pass,” Mr. Waters told the crowd of thousands. “I didn’t last Sunday, and I’m not going to let it pass now without … giving my love to my brothers and sisters … who are standing up for their brothers and sisters in Palestine and supporting the BDS ( Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.”
After Mr. Waters similarly criticized Israel during the first weekend of the festival, StandWithUs, an international nonprofit Israel education organization, hired a plane to fly above the crowd during Mr. Waters’ performance Sunday, with a lit banner that said: “Support Israeli-Palestinian Peace, Not Hateful Boycotts.”
“Community members attended [the] Waters concert last week and were incensed at his pro-BDS stance and criticism of Israel,” Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, told The Washington Times in an exclusive interview. “We decided that flying a plane over his concert this week would reach the greatest number of people with a message of peace.
“We were also alerting Waters and the public that this type of one-sided bigotry against only Israel misinforms people, is unjust and required a response.”
During his performance last weekend, Mr. Waters read “Why Cannot the Good Prevail,” a poem he wrote in 2004 about President George W. Bush and Iraq. As Mr. Waters played the Pink Floyd song “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” a very large pig showing a map of the U.S. floated above the crowd with the phrase: “Together we stand, divided we fall.”
The other side of the balloon showed Mr. Trump’s face with the words “ignorant,” “lying,” “racist,” “sexist” and “[expletive] Trump and his wall.” Later, during “Another Brick in the Wall,” several children wearing black T-shirts saying “derrida el murro” — Spanish for “tear down this wall” — came onstage.
Mr. Trump’s face also appeared on the immense video screen, wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, along with numerous of his sayings.
“Waters’ history of racism includes projecting the Star of David onto a pig during concerts, waxing conspiratorial about the ’Jewish lobby’ and making slanderous, dehumanizing statements about Israelis,” Ms. Rothstein wrote in a statement published by Rolling Stone. “Waters also wholly ignores violent racism against Israelis by Palestinian political and religious leaders, and whitewashes the murder of innocent civilians that follows this abhorrent incitement.”
Like the previous weekend, many in the audience left after Mr. Waters made his pro-Palestine comments. Activist Paul Anstey waved the Israeli flag during Mr. Waters’ performance.
“Ignorant fools like Roger Waters do not know the history and have not felt the pain of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism that has been ongoing for thousands of years,” Mr. Anstey told The Times. “I wave the flag of love and light to balance out the misinformed and those that have not bothered to study the rich history of the Jewish people and their presence in the land of Israel for over 3,000 years.”
“A better future for Israelis and Palestinians requires mutual recognition and mutual respect, not the bigotry and division that Waters is unfortunately perpetuating,” Ms. Rothstein said. “We will continue to support justice, peace and coexistence for all peoples in the region, and oppose destructive political interests that single out Israel, while hurting Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
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