Roger Waters letter to Jon Bon Jovi

[Daydream Believer]

Roger Waters to Jon Bon Jovi: “You stand shoulder to shoulder with the settler who burned the baby”


Letter to the pop group Bon Jovi:



Dear Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, and Tico Torres,

Often in the past I have written detailed, and sometimes even persuasive, letters to colleagues in the music business, encouraging them not to give succor to the Israeli government’s apartheid policies by performing in Israel. Having read Jon’s comments last week in Yedioth Ahronoth, I won’t waste my time drawing parallels with Apartheid South Africa and the moral stand that so many artists took then and that thousands are taking now in the face of decades of Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

So the die is cast, you are determined to proceed with your gig in Tel Aviv on October 3. You are making your stand.

You stand shoulder to shoulder

With the settler who burned the baby

With the bulldozer driver who crushed Rachel Corrie

With the soldier who shot the soccer player’s feet to bits

With the sailor who shelled the boys on the beach

With the sniper who killed the kid in the green shirt

And the one who emptied his clip into the 13-year-old girl

And the Minister of Justice who called for genocide

You had a chance to stand

On the side of justice

With the pilot who refused to bomb refugee camps

With the teenager who chose eight prison terms over army service

With the prisoner who fasted for 266 days until freedom

With the doctor banned from entry for saving lives

With the farmer who was cut down marching to the wall

With the legless child growing up in the rubble

And the 550 others who won’t grow up at all

Because of the missiles and tank shells and bullets we sent

The dead can’t remind you of the crimes you’ve ignored. But, lest we forget, “To stand by silent and indifferent is the greatest crime of all.”

Roger Waters

I really hope that Waters has never done a gig in the USA then, because they aren't that good either in how they go about treating others or maybe his memory is not as good at it was

It's nee epistle to the Corinthians like.

 

[Deleted User 11453]

I looked at the link about the baby being burned. The Israelis condemned it:

"The [Israeli army] strongly condemns this deplorable attack and has heightened its efforts in the field to locate those responsible."

It is terrible obviously. But then the US army did a lot of terrible things in Vietnam, every country has blood on its hands in some way.

 

[Medulla]

Mind a couple of months ago I bought a Sodastream and was going to take it back when I realised it was made in Israel, then I looked into it further and found out that they were actually made by Palestinians. Who'd have thought that the 2 warring factions could be brought together by a shared love of pop?

The factory was built on an Israeli settlement on the West Bank IIRC, leading to a huge boycott campaign.

They moved it into Israel, tried to keep on all the Palestinian workers and apparently Netanyahu (let it go Lynn, you're never going to meet him) stepped in personally to turn down most of the work permits so that he could effectively get them sacked and blame it on the boycott.

It's a lovely story.

 

[---Nemo---]

I couldn't give a toss about his causes, or what he thinks about Bon Jovi. However, I am looking forward to seeing him strut his stuff in Manchester come July.

 

[fyl2u]

Although of the Israelis are now going to unleash Bon Jovi on the Palestinians then they're really crossing a line.

This could lead to a real escalation of atrocities in the middle east, with ISIS committing wholesale human rights abuses using Nickelback, and Russia and Syria shocking the world with their ruthless deployment of Maroon 5.

Back home, Corbyn shows he hasn't got the stones for the tough choices required to defend this country with his refusal to use Coldplay on Britain's enemies. "It's the nuclear option and my conscience won't allow me to press that button, even as a last resort."

 

[bigmarlon]

The man is a nobhead.

 

[r@mside]

I think they're just pointing out that he's a massive f***ing hypocrite, TBH.

It's fine for people to take up a cause, it's hardly hypocritical not taking up every cause. His interest stems from what he witnessed with his own eyes when touring there.

That video of him playing Neve Shalom which tickled the Israeli apologists was cleverly cropped so we didn't see that he changed lyrics to voice his protest.

Doesn't mean he's not massive bellend, the way he goes on about it is just as likely to turn artists off his cause rather than onto it.

 

[supernaut1968]

Agree, mate, but that opens a whole can of worms up for me. It's a very contenscious issue for a lot of bands. The most democratic one that I knew of were Wishbone Ash, where Martin Turner, the Bass Player/Singer wrote most of the songs, but the rest of the band were also credited, because of their input on the final product

Same for Sabbath. With Queen, whoever came up with the original idea got the credit.

Another example would be Bowie, his demos are awful and Mick Ronson turned them into classics with his orchestrations and arrangements. But the original song had been written, he was simply building on what came before. And I'm saying that as a Ronson fan.

Gilmour is a great lead guitarist but he's not a writer. His solo stuff and post Waters Floyd is a collection of songs where everything is a build up the the guitar solo.