Amid the  Human Rights cataclysm overthrowing all the venerable despotic regimes in the Middle East, I heard on AlJazeera, the ‘brave words’ of Roger Waters the Pink Floyd frontman.

Interviewed by Riz Khan he says among other things (or vagaries)  that he is against Israel’s apartheid regime, that he is not antisemitic but against occupation. He also says that …”They’re annexing huge parts of the West Bank. So all this talk is they’re quietly getting on with taking over the whole of the land, and what happens then to the Palestinians?”…see here on YNET (Roger Waters: Join Israel boycott)

(Photo from the “Catbird Seat” site, holding the credo: “We are committed to exposing the Zionist Lobbies control of American policy for the Middle East.”)

It would be futile to try to argue with Roger Water that in any true agreement  almost 90 % of the West Bank is and remains Palestinian, see here (former American President Clinton) and here (former Israeli PM Olmert)

It would also be futile to tell Roger Water that his attempt to transplant South Africa’s apartheid to Israel is nothing more than a lack of total understanding of what the real apartheid was. For a more impartial view see here on Wikipedia “Israel and the Apartheid Analogy”.

Perhaps you forgot,  Mr Waters: the late British Empire reigned in Palestine for many decades. Your enlightened kingdom is the father of a brutal colonialism and of every possible form of occupation. Remember the ship Exodus, the Jewish emigrants swapping the Nazi concentration camps for  the British Empire concentration camps  in Cyprus. Here the demarcation ‘wall’ was the ocean..

Now again, it is futile to think that such historical facts deserve any consideration when you are being interviewed on AlJazeera and become a self appointed expert on apartheid, occupation and walls.

( The musical Pink Floyd ‘..Wall” was pretty better..)

Now, If we quote explicitly from the “Israel and the Apartheid Analogy” article then people with much more credits (than Roger Waters) about what apartheid was and is, denounce his falsification of the reality in the West Bank, long before he gave his last concert in Israel:

Malcolm Hedding, a South African minister who worked against South African apartheid, believes the barrier fence has nothing to do with apartheid and everything to do with Israel’s self-defense. He said that Israel has proven its desire to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians while granting political rights to its own Arab citizens within a liberal democratic system, but that the Palestinians remain committed to Israel’s destruction. By contrast, he says, it was a tiny minority in South Africa that held power and once democracy came, the Nationalist Party that had dominated the masses disappeared

.”Sudanese human rights activist Simon Deng has also criticized Tutu for referring to Israel as an apartheid state, stating that Arabs in Israel enjoy a variety of rights that blacks in apartheid-era South Africa did not, including the right to vote, and that Palestinians are only stopped at checkpoints to prevent attacks. Deng asks why Tutu criticizes Israel for apartheid policies it does not have, but ignores actual apartheid practices in other countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and especially his own country Sudan.”..

BTW, if talking about the checkpoints in the west bank they are greatly reduced because of the cooperation of the Palestinian and the Israeli to maintain the security needs of both sides.. I quote:

…”Israel says it has significantly reduced the number of roadblocks in the territories since they peaked some five years ago when terrorist attacks were more prevalent and the security barrier between Israel and the Palestinian Authority had not yet been completed. Today, there are 13 roadblocks around Jerusalem and some 40 others, most of these on the border, but also a number in the heart of the West Bank. “..

…“The days of long lines don’t exist anymore. The IDF has learned the lessons and has even set up special units to deal with roadblocks,” Lt.-Col. Avital Leibovitz, an IDF spokeswoman, told The Media Line. “The lines of the past years you don’t see anymore. Of course, you can wait sometimes for 20 minutes, but that can happen to you in any traffic jam.”…see here for the full article “Palestinians turn to technology to avoid roadblocks”.

Roger Waters, as a new member on the list of celebrities boycotting Israel, you are a member of a minority group, and as such you have the right to say what you want. But I would expect from such a good musician to make better home work before he is interviewed on AlJazeera by Riz Khan.

Photo source: ‘MIX“