Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters slams West for casting Israelis as ‘victims’

Renowned British singer and former Pink Floyd lyricist, Roger Waters, has slammed Western countries for continuing to cast Israelis as victims, even though the residents of the Gaza Strip are being bombed by F-16s.

Speaking to Turkish national broadcaster TRT World, Waters said Israeli fighter jets have been bombing civilians in Gaza for two months in an unimaginable way.

“One cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like and that it’s being cheered on by the most powerful empire in the world [the US] is disgusting beyond all belief,” he said, adding: “How can they still be trying to cast the Israelis as victims?”

He said that in 2016 he cancelled a concert after learning the venue in Israel’s HaYarkon Park was built on Palestinian graves, and then “moved the gig to an agricultural community where they grow chickpeas.”

“So we did a gig there, we had 60,000 people …., I think, at the time, it was the biggest gig that had ever been in Israel. And it was a huge success,” he said. He added that during the concert, he decided to take a stand and said: “You are the generation of young Israelis who must make peace with your neighbours.” The audience quickly went from enthusiasm to silence, he recalled.

Waters also described visiting the Israeli-occupied West Bank a year later.

“The absolute disdain and disgust with which me; with a British passport in an UNRWA vehicle, was treated by all the young Israeli border guards. And I remember thinking at the time, if they acted like that to me, what must they be like, to the Palestinians?”

He stressed that the news received through the Israeli media is “propaganda” that serves Israeli politicians.

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