Roger Waters has encouraged many musicians in the past to boycott concerts in Israel due to the government's crimes against Palestinians. He recently slammed Bon Jovi for his planned show on Saturday night.
The former Pink Floyd bassist wrote an open letter on Salon.com and listed a number of Palestinian casualties killed at the hands of the Israeli government. He condemned all the members of the band for standing "shoulder to shoulder with the settler who burned the baby" and many other horrifying deaths.
"The dead can't remind you of the crimes you've ignored. But, lest we forget, 'To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all,'" Waters wrote, loosely quoting Elie Wiesel, the notable Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Waters has previously asked Stevie Wonder and Alan Parsons to cancel their performances in Israel. He also serves as a juror on the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, which seeks to bring attention to how Western governments and companies assist Israel in what they perceive to be violations of international law, according to Rolling Stone.
Read the complete letter below:
Dear Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, and Tico Torres,
Often in the past I have written detailed, and sometimes even persuasive, letters to colleagues in the music business, encouraging them not to give succor to the Israeli government’s apartheid policies by performing in Israel. Having read Jon’s comments last week in Yedioth Ahronoth, I won’t waste my time drawing parallels with Apartheid South Africa and the moral stand that so many artists took then and that thousands are taking now in the face of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.
So the die is cast, you are determined to proceed with your gig in Tel Aviv on October 3. You are making your stand.
You stand shoulder to shoulder
With the settler who burned the baby
With the bulldozer driver who crushed Rachel Corrie
With the soldier who shot the soccer player’s feet to bits
With the sailor who shelled the boys on the beach
With the sniper who killed the kid in the green shirt
And the one who emptied his clip into the 13-year-old girl
And the Minister of Justice who called for genocide
You had a chance to stand
On the side of justice
With the pilot who refused to bomb refugee camps
With the teenager who chose eight prison terms over army service
With the prisoner who fasted for 266 days until freedom
With the doctor banned from entry for saving lives
With the farmer who was cut down marching to the wall
With the legless child growing up in the rubble
And the 550 others who won’t grow up at all
Because of the missiles and tank shells and bullets we sent
The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored. But, lest we forget, “To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all.”
Roger Waters
