Pink Floyd Frontman visits Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem
Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, June 23rd, 2006
Roger Waters, frontman of British band Pink Floyd, visited the Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem district on June 22. Waters used the trip to highlight his opposition to the Occupation and the Wall and scrawled the infamous Pink Floyd lyrics “We don’t need no thought control” on the Apartheid structure before stating “without being here you can't imagine how extraordinarily oppressive it is”.
Waters’ trip had been greeted with much controversy since it was announced that the Pink Floyd member would play a show in Tel Aviv, Apartheid Israel. The Palestinian Campaign Academic and Cultural Boycott (PACBI) and War on Want immediately launched a campaign against the concert which went against Waters’ previous support for the Palestinian struggle against the Wall and Occupation. That campaign suceeded in relocating the location of the concert and Waters used his trip to highlight ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.
He stated: “It's a horrific edifice, this thing ... I've seen pictures of it, I've heard a lot about it but without being here you can't imagine how extraordinarily oppressive it is.” The move represented a growing awareness amongst the global music and arts community of the crimes of Apartheid Israel and the responsibility of artists not to be complicit with the Occupation. Waters’ decision to change the venue of the concert and his use of the trip as an opportunity to denounce the Wall was welcomed by groups advocating a boycott of Apartheid Israel as a means of building solidarity with Palestinians struggling for their freedom.
Musicians and artists played a significant role of supporting the South African liberation struggle in the 1980s by refusing to give the Apartheid regime legitimacy and recognition. A similar movement, founded upon the calls of Palestinians under Occupation has the potential to mirror these important features of the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa.
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| Above: "We don't need no thought control" |
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| Above: Roger Waters next to the Apartheid Wall |
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