Look To Your Own House: Roger Waters Fires Back At Critics’ Charges of Anti-Semitism

Common Dreams – by Abby Zimet

Confronting recent criticism of his support for Palestinian rights and the BDS movement in two furious, personal, open letters, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters rips the “crude pattern” of equating his and others’ criticisms of “the policies of this government of Israel” with anti-Semitism, viewing it as perhaps “a reaction to the fact that BDS is gaining ground, day by day and year by year, all over the world.” Arguing that dehumanization of the other is “the root of all injustice and oppression” and that “the tree of fear and bigotry bears only bitter fruit,” Waters cites the death of his father fighting the Nazis in Italy to chide critics – especially those penning poisonous pieces about Waters’ “anti-Semitic stench” – with, “Do not presume to preach to me, my father’s son, about anti-Semitism or human rights.”  

“Look to your own house and the human rights abuses and racism of the Israeli government you defend. If Jews and Palestinians are to live in peace then there must be a real acknowledgment of the fact that Israel is denying freedom to Palestinians and abusing the term “anti-Semitism” to intimidate people, like me, into silence simply because we seek a better and equal future for Palestinians and Jews alike.”

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2014/03/19-1