March 12, 2011

Another brick off the wall? Roger Waters calls for BDS

Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, has a Guardian Comment is free article supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions.  That's nice but it's easy enough to duck out of gigs and award ceremonies by citing other commitments or diary pressures.  Not only that an artist can always whinge a little about the occupation or the violence or even the "nihilism" of "both sides".  Roger Waters is made of better stuff:
the Israeli government has made no attempt to implement legislation that would grant rights to Israeli Arabs equal to those enjoyed by Israeli Jews, and the wall has grown, inexorably, illegally annexing more and more of the West Bank.



For the people of Gaza, locked in a virtual prison behind the wall of Israel's illegal blockade, it means another set of injustices. It means that children go to sleep hungry, many chronically malnourished. It means that fathers and mothers, unable to work in a decimated economy, have no means to support their families. It means that university students with scholarships to study abroad must watch the opportunity of a lifetime slip away because they are not allowed to travel.
In my view, the abhorrent and draconian control that Israel wields over the besieged Palestinians in Gaza and the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), coupled with its denial of the rights of refugees to return to their homes in Israel, demands that fair-minded people around the world support the Palestinians in their civil, nonviolent resistance.
Where governments refuse to act people must, with whatever peaceful means are at their disposal. For me this means declaring an intention to stand in solidarity, not only with the people of Palestine but also with the many thousands of Israelis who disagree with their government's policies, by joining the campaign of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel.
Did you see that?  It is clear statement against the whole shebang of zionist rule in occupied Palestine; the blockade of Gaza, the wall through the West Bank, draconian controls over the lives of occupied Palestinians, including in Jerusalem and the denial of the right of return.

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