One started by US journalist and comedian Katie Halper petition on “change.org” shows solidarity with Roger Waters and condemns the concert cancellations planned in Germany as part of his tour. Celebrity signers include Eric Clapton, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel and Noam Chomsky. Pink Floyd founding member and drummer Nick Mason also signed the petition. Mason formally contradicts his colleague David Gilmour and his wife Polly Samson, who recently described Waters as anti-Semites.
The petition states: “We artists, musicians, writers and other public figures and organizations are deeply disturbed by the recent efforts by German authorities to discredit and silence the musician Roger Waters”.
The petition also responds to the allegations of anti-Semitism on which the planned cancellations are based: “The officials vilifying Waters are waging a dangerous campaign that deliberately conflates criticism of Israel’s illegal and unjust policies with anti-Semitism . This amalgamation perpetuates the anti-Semitic stereotype that portrays Jews as a monolith blindly supporting Israel. Some of Israel’s most vocal critics are Jews. But those who weaponize anti-Semitism do contribute to it.”
The petition does not seem to have taken into account the fact that research on antisemitism and from a political science perspective often speak of “Israel-related antisemitism” and that modern antisemitism is very closely linked to the Israeli state.
Waters, for example, equated Israel’s foreign policy and the Palestinian population affected by it with the victims of the Holocaust. The petition also refers to Germany’s past and the genocide of the Jews, but connects it to “occupied Palestine”: “We call on those who canceled Waters’ concerts to revise their decisions and come to terms with theirs own history of anti-Semitism, racism and genocide and to consider how such occurrences can be prevented today in other parts of the world, including in occupied Palestine”.
This reads as if the signatories were denying Israel’s right to exist through the narrative of the “evil occupier”. The fact that the country has been fighting for its own existence since the state was founded, and that it has been involved in numerous wars and conflicts, is not taken into account.
And further in the petition: “Apart from these two allegations, there is no further evidence that Waters supported the Palestinian-led campaign for a cultural boycott of Israel and that he compared the current Israeli government with the apartheid regime in South Africa. None of these claims are unique to Waters or fall outside the bounds of public opinion. human rights organizations […] have referred to Israel as an apartheid state, and as such many of these organizations and individuals have drawn the comparison between Israel and apartheid-era South Africa”.
The petition refers to legitimate criticism of the government and expression of opinion. However, there is no concrete criticism of Israel’s foreign policy decisions. Instead, the country is reduced to the role of villain state, regardless of a complex conflict that it is at the center of. More than 5,500 people have signed the petition so far (as of March 15, 12:30 p.m.).