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Why One Jewish Group Protested a Rock and Roll Icon

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Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has been open about his negative views on Israel. 

The 73-year-old played two concerts with his famous rock and roll band this past weekend in Washington D.C.

Before the concerts, one Jewish group decided to call Waters out on his stance.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington created a video to address Waters’ hostility toward Israel.

“This is a sort of welcoming party for Waters,” said the group’s executive director Ron Halber, referencing the video in an interview with the Washington Post. “We want him to know when he arrives in D.C. that the sort of hateful language that he’s peddling and the myths he engages in are going to be met with fierce resistance.”

They point to his anti-Israel language and support of the “boycott, divestment and sanctions” movement or BDS. It’s a pro-Palestinian effort against Israel.

Halber also mentioned there have been inflatable pigs with Jewish stars painted on them at Rogers’ concerts according to a 2013 report by the Jerusalem Post.

In June, Waters wrote an open letter to Thom Yorke of the band Radiohead. Waters was upset they were playing in Israel.

"Today is the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Palestine by Israel. Fifty years of living under military occupation, 50 years for a people with no civil rights, 50 years of apartheid,” he said.

The Jewish Council’s video also pointed out Waters went as far as to compare modern day Israel to Hitler’s Nazi controlled Germany.

In a 2011 op-ed for the Guardian, Waters said people in Gaza were “locked in a virtual prison behind the wall of Israel's illegal blockade.”

In it, he also referred to Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank as “besieged,” and the Israeli control of the region as “abhorrent and draconian.”

“He’s an embarrassment,” Halber said of Waters. “I advise him to stick to music and stop talking about things he knows nothing about.”

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