The former Pink Floyd bassist, Rogers Waters, is taking legal
action after being accused of being an anti-Semite.
Frankfurt city council and the Hessian state government
decided to cancel his show on 28 May in a bid to "set an example against antisemitism." They have accused Waters
of persistent anti-Israel behaviour and of being one of the most widely spread
anti-Semites in the world. They have accused Waters of campaigning for a
cultural boycott of Israel and of comparing Israel to the apartheid regime in
South Africa. Roger Waters denies being anti-Semitic and has instructed lawyers
to take action to overturn the decision and to ensure that his right to freedom
of speech is protected and that people who wish to attend his concerts, are
free to do so.
Anti-Semitism is a hatred or prejudice of Jews or Jewish
people. Criticism of Israel is often conflated with anti-Semitism, but it is
not anti-Semitism. Both Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela's grandson,
Zwelivelile Mandela, have accused Israel of being an apartheid regime and I
think both of them, know a thing or two about apartheid, or segregation and
discrimination, on grounds of race.
Amnesty International have also accused Israel of apartheid
because of the way Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against
Palestinians in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza, and
across all areas under its control and Palestinian refugees, in order to
benefit Jewish Israelis.
Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that Israel is "not a state of all its citizens."
As Prime Minister of Israel, he declared on 26 November 2014, that Israel was
"The nation-state of the Jewish
people and the Jewish people alone."
Roger Waters is just one of many people who have been
condemned and vilified for being anti-Semites simply because they criticise
Israel and express sympathy with the oppressed Palestinian people.
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