Rogers Waters has hit back at Nick Cave after he defied the Pink Floyd icon’s plea to cancel a gig in Israel last weekend.
Last month, Waters joined musicians including Thurston Moore to campaign against the Tel Aviv show, urging Cave to cancel the show “while apartheid remains.”
The show went ahead last night, with Cave telling local press how it would be a defiant statement against anyone “who tries to censor and silence musicians”.
“At the end of the day, there’s maybe two reason why I’m here. One is that I love Israel and I love Israeli people, and two is to make a principled stand against anyone who tries to censor and silence musicians”, Cave boldly resolved.
Now, Waters has responded once more, and claimed that “this isn’t about music. It’s about human rights.”
“Nick thinks this is about censorship of his music? What? Nick, with all due respect, your music is irrelevant to this issue, so is mine, so is Brian Eno’s so is Beethoven’s, this isn’t about music, it’s about human rights”, Waters said in a statement.
“We, hundreds of thousands of us, supporters of BDS and human rights throughout history all over the world join together in memory of Sharpeville and Wounded Knee and Lidice and Budapest and Ferguson and Standing Rock and Gaza and raise our fists in protest.
“We hurl our glasses into the fire of your arrogant unconcern, and smash our bracelets on the rock of your implacable indifference.”
His calls were backed by Artists for Palestine UK, who accused Cave of “giving comfort to the unjust”.
“Nick Cave has used the opportunity of a press conference in Israel to speak out about ‘silencing'”, a statement confirmed.
“People around the world will be surprised to read that Cave has chosen not to speak out about the trial of the Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour or the targeting of journalist Makbula Nasser in Israel; nor the indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial of Palestinian artists, journalists and human rights defenders in the occupied West Bank; nor of the denial of permits for Palestinians musicians or of cancer patients seeking to exit Gaza.”
“Artists for Palestine UK believe it is Palestinians who know the meaning of daily humiliation and silencing. We regret that in a land of injustice Nick Cave is giving comfort to the unjust.”
Cave is yet to directly respond to the latest round of criticism.