A NOTE FROM ROGER. HAJAR AL-BAHTINI.
https://rogerwaters.com/hajar/
May 11, 2023
A note from Roger:
Thursday 11th May 2023
STOP KILLING THE CHILDREN. Hajar Al-bahtini pictured was one of the Palestinian children killed the night before last. The persecution of The Palestinians must end.
I am harassed in Germany for speaking up for my brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Germany’s harassment of me is not even a gnat bite.
But, it demands a nod. So this is what it feels like to be maligned, it doesn’t feel good.
“Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K, he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.”
I have been quoting the famous first line from Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” during my song Run Like Hell in all my shows since 2010. And now here I am living it in Germany. Except of course I haven’t been arrested yet!
The lies in question in my case are that I am a Jew-hating anti-Semite and that I am a Putin apologist on the wrong side of the war in Ukraine, and that in consequence, in Germany at least, I should be banned from performing my work.
These smear tactic lies have been so firmly entrenched in the German psyche that on Monday 8th May, in Koln, at a small protest outside the venue where I was to perform my “This Is Not A Drill” show the next day, no fewer than eight speakers lined up to denounce me as a monster anti-Semite to a small crowd.
I am being demonized because what I say about Palestine and Ukraine contradicts the orthodox view of Big Brother. I am being attacked for expressing opinions and exposing Big Brother’s lies.
So? Who runs the Ministry of truth in Germany? Who is Big Brother? Who gets to define the words in our dictionaries? What is and what is not Anti-Semitism? How did the war in Ukraine start? Was the Russian invasion in February 2022 unprovoked? Did war in Ukraine really start in February 2022 or did it start in 2014 with attacks on the Donbas by the newly installed anti-democratic, possibly neo-fascist supported, government in Kiev? It is true I wrote to Alina a young girl in Ukraine who had reached out to me, I suggested a return to the Minsk protocols for peace in the Donbas, as an alternative to war. I also wrote to Mrs. Zelenska and Mr. Putin suggesting the same thing. Fifteen months later, looking back, was I wrong to encourage negotiations? What has been achieved by pursuing the carnage of proxy war? Was I wrong to call for peace? Was I wrong to sound a warning.
Every night in my song Sheep I sing:
Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out there maybe dogs about
I have looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.
I point out in my show that Animals is an homage to George Orwell and Aldous Huxley and how right they were to warn future generations of the coming dystopia. And how right I was to echo their misgivings and predictions when I wrote Animals in 1977.
That the speakers at the anti-Roger Waters protest, outside the gig seek to silence me is mind-numbingly dumb. Particularly because inside the venue I’m singing the same truth that I wrote forty five years ago in Sheep, in a show they now wish to cancel? This takes irony to depths that are beyond this bass player’s understanding.
Anti-Semitsm:
I am not anti Semitic. Never have been never will be. I speak the truth about Israel/Palestine.
1. The Israel Palestine issue is NOT complicated.
In contravention of all international law the apartheid state of Israel engages in building settlements in territory occupied by military force, territory designated by the UN for a Palestinian state, and is committed to the ethnic cleansing of the non-Jewish indigenous population.
2. BDS is not anti-Semitic, its aims, very specifically,
are to promote equal human rights for all the peoples between the Jordan river and the sea. All, in this case, means all ethnicities, all religions, all equally. This is not complicated; a four year old could understand it.
Next stop in Germany is Berlin, 17th and 18th May. Please come and show solidarity with all your brothers and sisters all over the world, irrespective of their ethnicity, religion or nationality, and resist Big Brother and the forces of predatory Capitalism who are destroying our beautiful planet home.
Today I read a statement from the Frankfurt City Council.
They said: “In order to send a signal to society as a whole against anti-Semitism and exclusion, the city and state support the call of the Frankfurt Jewish Community for a peaceful rally under the motto ‘Frankfurt united against anti-Semitism’ on 28 May from 4pm at the Festhalle.”
Here’s my statement: ”Roger Waters stands United with The Frankfurt Jewish Community, in that, he too abhors Anti-Semitism along with all other forms of racism and discrimination.”
Nothing will bring back our sister Hajar Al-bahtini.
I am desolate.
R.
Nakba75: Be a key to justice
May 12, 2023
Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
As we approach the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) we call on our supporters worldwide to join us in solidarity by taking 5 actions to help #EndIsraeliApartheid.
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, in which between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Indigenous Palestinians were forced out of their homes and subjected to ethnic cleansing by Zionist militias and, later, the Israeli army, in order to establish the state of Israel as a Jewish supremacist settler-colony.
For 75 years, Palestinians have experienced and resisted an ongoing Nakba. From Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first PM in 1948, to Ben-Gvir, Israel’s current “national security” minister, and the ascent of Israel’s most openly racist, far-right government, Palestinians have been subjected to renewed and intensified campaigns of ethnic cleansing; settlement construction; land and water theft; repeated massacres in Gaza; mass arrests; and restrictions on movement.
On Tuesday, Israeli military forces intentionally and indiscriminately bombed families in Gaza. Over the past four days, apartheid Israel’s airstrikes on the over 2 million Palestinians under siege in Gaza have killed, so far, 31 Palestinians, including 7 children. Shockingly, in just five months, Israel’s occupation forces and illegal settlers have murdered at least 144 Palestinians, 26 of them children. (accurate at time of publishing).
Still we rise! Despite Israel’s ongoing violence and aggression, Palestinians remain resilient and steadfast in our popular resistance. Whether in Gaza, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Jenin, Beita, Masafer Yatta, the Jordan Valley, Al-Naqab, or in exile, Palestinians stand united against Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.
We will continue to struggle for our liberation, our inalienable rights, including our right to self-determination and the right of our refugees to return home. We march onward towards freedom, justice, equality, and dignity!
Now, as apartheid Israel unleashes a new war on the Palestinian people in Gaza, you can play a vital role in helping to dismantle Israeli apartheid. We ask that you take the following 5 solidarity actions and be a key to justice for Palestinians everywhere:
- Work with progressive networks to pressure parliaments and governments to (a) end all military-security cooperation and trade (military funding in the US case) with apartheid Israel and similarly criminal regimes of oppression worldwide, (b) ban all procurement from and investment in companies operating in Israel’s illegal colonial settlements; and (c) promote UN action to investigate and dismantle Israeli apartheid, as was done with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
- Mobilize institutional pressure campaigns (including boycotts and divestment) against Israeli and international companies and banks that are complicit in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. This includes all Israeli banks (Leumi, Hapoalim, etc.) and major multinationals such as: Elbit Systems, Google, Amazon, HP and HPE, CAT, JCB, Volvo, HD Hyundai, Chevron, Siemens, CAF, G4S/AlliedUniversal, AXA, PUMA, Carrefour, Booking.com, Airbnb, Sabra, Barclays, Expedia, Hikvision, TKH Security and more.
- Mobilize your community, city council, trade union, association, church, social network, student government/union, cultural center, or other organization to declare it an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ), ending all relations with apartheid Israel and companies/institutions that are complicit in its system of oppression.
- Initiate/support boycotts of all academic, cultural, sports, and tourism engagements taking place in/sponsored by apartheid Israel or its lobby groups and complicit institutions.
- Join a BDS campaign or a strategic Palestine solidarity group near you to act collectively and effectively. Many national and regional groups will be holding demonstrations and activities to mark #Nabka75, join them if you can!
Channel your anger and mobilize to dismantle apartheid and all forms of racism and oppression.
May 12, 2023
Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
Dott. Alessio Brancaccio, tecnico ambientale Università degli Studi di L’Aquila, ideologo e consulente tecnico movimento ambientalista Ultima Generazione A22 Network e membro attivo della Fondazione Michele Scarponi Onlus
BLOG PERSONALE BRALEX84 