Musician says he is a victim of an “Israeli lobby” campaign and therefore cannot stay in Montevideo and Buenos Aires
Musician Roger Waters said that “the Israeli lobby” prevented him from staying in hotels in South America and that he would therefore remain in São Paulo while he performed performances on the continent. He will perform in Montevideo (Uruguay) on Friday (November 17th, 2023) and next week in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
“Somehow those idiots in the Israeli lobby managed to coopt every hotel in Buenos Aires and Montevideo and organize this extraordinary boycott based on malicious lies they told about me,” Waters said in an interview with the newspaper Página 12. “They do it because I believe in human rights and speak openly about the genocide of the Palestinian people. And I will continue to do that,” he added.
According to the publication, the hotel where the musician was staying in Montevideo received an email in which the President of the Israeli Central Committee of Uruguay, Roby Schindler, said that Waters was “misogynistic, xenophobic and antiSemitic” and that the musician was “using his Fame as an artist to lie and spew his hatred against Israel and all Jews.” The text says that by admitting him “even if it doesn’t want to” the hotel is propagating the “hatred that this man radiates” and ” “would contribute to the increase in antiSemitism.”
The musician explained that “these people, the Roby Schindlers of this world,” are trying to “silence” him because he believes in human rights. “This is a colonial society that prevents nothing, not even mass murder,” he said, adding that “this society” wants to “proclaim its supremacy over other peoples and other religions.” According to him, “the people of the world must stop them.”
Waters said he received no explanation for not being able to stay in hotels. “They just say, ‘You don’t have a room.’ And I know that in Montevideo they’ve been telling people in all the newspapers for weeks not to buy tickets to the show,” he said. The artist states that his presentation is “very political, very frontal.”
The musician said: “I’m running out of breath, I’ve said everything I could say. I hope that our lives cross paths in the future to talk about music in more depth. But now I’m in the middle of a war. And for me it’s not about the war against me, but about the bloodbath of brothers and sisters in Gaza. This needs to be talked about today. Not the feelings of the Israeli lobby: they deserve our contempt. And yes, I am deeply angry, this is a crazy and absurd joke, but we have to do something about it.”
UNDERSTAND WHAT GENOCIDE IS
The word “genocide” has been heard a lot in Brazilian political news recently, especially due to the Covid19 pandemic. Governments and politicians have been labeled genocidal for not following recommended standard operating procedures to combat the coronavirus.
It turns out that irresponsibility or making decisions that defy common sense in public health or in places of armed conflict does not constitute genocide when one considers the true meaning of the term. O Power360 wrote a report on what genocide is: read it here.
The word genocide appeared in 1944 during World War II. It was created by lawyer Raphael Lemkin (19001959), a Polish Jew, to conceptualize the abuses suffered by victims of the Nazi government. It comes from the combination of Genos, a Greek word meaning “tribe,” and Cide, a Latin term meaning “to kill.”
According to Michael Freitas Mohallem, professor at the PUCRio Law Institute, “genocide is the act of destroying an ethnic or religious group, but it has an important element, namely the intention of an agent to exterminate a specific group.” In short, whoever commits genocide , must do it too intentionally wanting to eradicate a population group.
In 1948, the definition of genocide as a crime began when the United Nations held an event on the subject, the Convention for the Prevention and Suppression of the Crime of Genocide. Within the framework of international law, the organization’s member countries undertake to monitor and punish possible perpetrators.
In the case of the war between Hamas and Israel, the conflict began after an attack by the extremist group on sea, land and air into Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. In this surprise military attack, Hamas killed men, women and children outside of Distinction , including more than 200 young people who took part in a rave (party). The group has a public statute in which one of its goals includes the annihilation of Israel.