A Note from Roger Waters - February 1, 2014

Mr. Roger Waters wrote a letter to Neil Young and Scarlett Johansson, asking them to boycott Israel. On this letter, he describe the "horrible situation" of Palestinians in Israel, and the "rightful reasons" to boycott Israel.

Mr. Roger, starts his letter... In the past days I have written privately to Neil Young (once) and to Scarlett Johansson (a couple of times). Those letters will remain private. Sadly, I have received no reply from either. And so I write this note on my Facebook page somewhat in bewilderment.

Mr. Waters keeps writing:
"I am not going to attempt to list, either those laws(they are on the statute book in the Knesset for all to research) or all the other grave human rights abuses of Israeli domestic and foreign policy. I would run out of space. But, to return to my friend Scarlett Johansson." Scarlett, I have read your reposts and excuses, in them you claim that the Palestinian workers in the factory have equal pay, benefits and "Equal rights". Really? Equal Rights? Do they.....?

And Last But Not Least...
Mr. Waters - Ignorance Will Kill You!
In the end of the letter, Mr. Waters comes with a list of questions, which if he knew the reality of Human Rights in Israel, he would have the right answers:

* Do they have the right to vote? * Do they have access to the roads? * Can they travel to their work place without waiting for hours to pass through the occupying forces control barriers? * Do they have clean drinking water?

* Do they have sanitation? * Do they have citizenship? * Do they have the right not to have the standard issue kicking in their door in the middle of the night and taking their children away? * Do they have the right to appeal against arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment? * Do they have the right to re-occupy the property and homes they owned before 1948? * Do they have the right to an ordinary, decent human family life?

* Do they have the right to self determination? * Do they have the right to continue to develop a cultural life that is ancient and profound? If these questions put you in a quandary I can answer them for you. The answer is, NO, they do not. The workers in The Soda Stream Factory do not have any of these rights.

Roger Waters Note on Facebook

Poster Note: No wonder why Neil Young and Scarlett Johansson didn't reply to your hypocrisy - They are bigger than you! Why do the best musicians in the world also think they are the best politicians? Who do you think you are, Mr. Waters? You are a great musician, but a little man!

Mr. Waters, if you need attention so badly, you got some, here are some replies from your fans:

* Noten Brook - Ben Red
Mr. Waters, Music is supposed to act as a bridge between people and cultures and not create a gap between them. Your attitude doesn't help to break the wall, it only makes it higher. The impression you make is that you're not really interested in bringing peace and co-existence in the Middle East and that's too bad because many of us here are… Maybe you've succeeded in convincing Pearl Jam not to come here, because you're sort of a "father figure" for them, but Neil Young is not a child and he will be here because he knows that music lovers are the same anywhere in the world.

* Dror Nahum
Roger is not building bridges towards peace either. only Hate. "Love and only love will break it down" (Neil young) i'm so sad for you Roger.

* Nimrod Goldstein
Hello Roger, I am an Israeli that loves your music and I tend to read your posts every time. I might not agree with them, but I respect your opinion. I don't think you understand the situation in Israel, but I'll leave that aside. You talk about Israel in 3 of your last 5 posts. Do you think that Israel is the source to all of the worlds problems? In the last 2 years, more than 100,000 people were killed in Syria. About 20,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in the last 3 years. I'm not sure that you're aware to this, but in the last 70 years in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 15,000 people were killed on both sides.

* Kelly Levy
Roger, your are known for very selective "Human Rights activism" (Syria, China and many other countries do not exist in your surreal map) - the true cause surfaces along with your hypocritical and uneducated stance.

Yaniv Vaydgorin
Is Israel really the biggest problem in the world right now?!? what about Syria? what about the Palestinians that live in Gaza under Hammas control? You know nothing about the conflict.

Both, Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in peace. Send your complains to Hammas, Iran and Hezbollah that funding terrorist attacks here. And if you really feel the need to criticize more, i suggest you'll criticize your own country and government that colonized half of the world and left it in a mess. Is that mean nobody should play in the U.K???

BTW: if you are wondering why there is a wall between us and them. you can call us psychos but we don't like to ride a bus and to explode. * Yoav Arden Each and every time I hear from you - you lose a bit more dignity. I, who spent 400$ to sit close and watch you take down the 'hatred' wall on stage. Now, I can go online and watch you bleed to death in order to build it up again. But it's only around yourself. You, who got spit on by a fan than wrote an album, now you spit in ours and think it's all well and good.

Do not get me wrong, you are entitled and even expected to have an opinion, and as Voltaire once said - I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. But don't force yourself on people with different opinions than yours, it's unbecoming and disrespectful. You are a Smart Englishman, I don't have to tell you that you're own country forced herself on other parts of the world.

Remember it every time you play a show in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and Ireland... (To simplify it for you - The British Empire has had Military Presence in more than 150 countries) Please, keep your thoughts to yourself, it's more honorable.

Scarlett Johansson Gives a Damn Johansson takes a bold stand against the anti-Israel BDS movement: 

"Companies do business in China, which imprisons dissidents by the thousands. Companies trade with Bangladesh, where workers in dangerous factories have died by the hundreds. Only Israel, which protects basic human and civil and economic rights, is forbidden territory."

With a strong, clear stand — calmly citing “fundamental difference of opinion” — Johansson becomes the highest-profile celebrity to buck the load of BDS bull. Ever more power to her, and to those who may follow her example.

NY Daily News




A Response to Mr. Roger Waters
Uri Silberman Roger Waters, since Scarlett Johansson has the good sense not to answer your pitiful letter to her begging her to hate Israel like you do, I will answer the questions you posed, not for your benefit (because I believe your hatred has blinded you of the real facts), but for those who are genuinely unaware of the following facts:

Q: Do they have the right to vote?
A: Yes they do, they vote for their Palestinian leadership. In the previous elections, they voted for Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization. Israeli Arabs can vote in the Israeli Knesset.

Q: Do they have access to the roads?
A: Absolutely! I drive through Samaria every single day, and trust me, it's FULL of Palestinian drivers.

Q: Can they travel to their work place without waiting for hours to pass through the occupying forces control barriers?
A: The Israeli barriers have one purpose only. To prevent Palestinian terrorists from entering Israeli and Jewish towns and murdering it's citizens. A day doesn't go by without a Palestinian being caught at one of these barriers with some sort of weapon. How many lives do you think have been saved because of these barriers? Countless! So with all due respect, I think saving lives takes priority over someone having to wait while being checked at one of these barriers. Or perhaps you don't think that Jewish lives are worth as much as Palestinian time? Perhaps you think that Jews don't have rights to live?

Q: Do they have clean drinking water?
A: Yes they do. I know a lot of Palestinians, and they all have drinking water. And I'm not just referring to those Palestinians who illegally tap into the national water system.

Q: Do they have sanitation?
A: Why don't you ask the Palestinian Authority who's responsibility it is to take care of Palestinian sanitation?

Q: Do they have citizenship?
A: Yes they do, most have Palestinian citizenship, some have dual Jordanian/Palestinian, and others have yet other Arab countries' citizenship, not to mention Palestinians withIsraeli citizenship.

Q: Do they have the right not to have the standard issue kicking in their door in the middle of the night and taking their children away?
A: Anyone who deals with terrorism should and can be arrested. I assume that is who you are referring to, right? Terrorists? I can assure you that a very large majority of Palestinians have not had their doors kicked in and their children taken away. Additionally, if I, as an Israeli Jew, was to harm anyone in a violent matter as Palestinian terrorists do, my door would also get kicked in and I would be put in Jail. I think anyone in any country in the world faces these same conditions if they were to carry out violent attacks against someone.

Q: Do they have the right to appeal against arbitrary and indefinite imprisonment?
A: Of course they do. All Palestinian and Jewish prisoners are afforded an attorney, either one that they have paid for, or one that is appointed to them by the State if they can't afford one. And can we also mention at this point that Palestinian prisoners who serve jail sentences for terrorism in Israeli jails live in conditions that prisoners in Palestinian Authority jails could only dream of?

Q: Do they have the right to re-occupy the property and homes they owned before 1948?
A: Considering that Jews are the ones that were expelled from this land over around 2000 years ago, do we have this right in your opinion? The Palestinians who built homes on this land have built them on top of ancient Jewish towns and villages.

Q: Do they have the right to an ordinary, decent human family life?
A: Every human being should have this right. I wonder what their lives would have been like had the Palestinians accepted the numerous peace offers over the years that Israel has offered. It started in 1947 with their rejection of the UN Partition Plan, and continued in 1967 (Khartoum), 2000 (Camp David), 2001 (Taba), 2008 (Olmert offer), 2012 (Current negotiations).

Q: Do they have the right to self determination?
A: This is covered by the answer above. The question that needs to be asked is if that's what they really want? Don't you think that they should have accepted one of the above mentioned peace offers if they were really interested in self determination? Or perhaps they have far greater ambitions? Like ALL of Israel?

Q: Do they have the right to continue to develop a cultural life that is ancient and profound?
A: So Palestinian cultural life is ancient and profound, huh? Just how ancient is Palestinian culture in your opinion?

Here are a few more questions that you can answer:

* That might give us an idea of how ancient they are:
* When was Palestine founded and by whom?
* What were its borders?
* What was its capital?
* What were its major cities?
* What constituted the basis of its economy?
* What was its form of government?
* Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?

Uri Silverman - CEO of The Israel Network

Poster's Note:
Mr. Waters, too bad you are flashing your wonderful career down the toilet. Too bad you dirt the name of Pink Floyd Team, but no worries, Mr. Waters, we already know why David Gilmore is better musicians AND better man than you!!!

Lebanon War Distortions

Study shows NGOs issued baseless, fabricated accusations against Israel.

BY: Abraham Bell, Gerald M. Steinberg

This summer marks the five-year anniversary of the Lebanon war between Israel and the Lebanese-Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah. The Second Lebanon War traumatized Israel politically as well as militarily. Militarily, Israel failed to dislodge the terrorist organization from its southern Lebanese foothold; politically, Israeli leaders found themselves overwhelmed by a flood of false accusations of “war crimes,” “indiscriminate and disproportionate” force, and “violations of international law.”

International non-governmental organizations played a critical role in the political warfare against Israel. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International – ostensibly neutral watchdogs – led the campaign. In 35 days, they issued over 40 press releases, statements and pseudo fact-finding reports, comprising hundreds of pages, largely ignoring the war crimes committed by the terrorist organization and instead focusing overwhelmingly and negatively on alleged Israeli crimes.

The HRW and Amnesty allegations were immediately accepted, at face value, by the world’s media. Politicians and diplomats then echoed the war crimes accusations, without any fact-checking.

We are now completing a multi-year study of all the HRW and Amnesty allegations regarding the 2006 Lebanon war, and the results so far are shocking. In our systematic and detailed research, supported by the Israel Science Foundation, we found major contradictions as well as numerous unsupported charges, double standards and false or invented “evidence.”

In some reports, such as on incidents in the Shiite towns of Srifa and Qana - Hezbollah strongholds from which numerous rocket attacks were launched - the NGOs published wildly inconsistent civilian casualty claims within a few days of each other. Errors were overwhelmingly in one direction; almost without fail, errors consisted of exaggerated Lebanese casualties or unfounded accusations against Israel.

In many incidents, HRW and Amnesty reports initially relied both on Lebanese witnesses and the personal observations of its own “researchers” to deny any Hezbollah military presence in the area of an Israeli strike, while later publications acknowledged that Hezbollah had been present, meaning the witnesses had lied and the NGO researchers were incompetent. Regarding Srifa, even after reducing the number of reported Lebanese casualties from “at least 42” to 26 to 19 before finally settling on 22, HRW found itself forced by critics and the evidence to eventually acknowledge that most of the “civilian” casualties it had “documented” were, in fact, Hezbollah combatants.

Hold NGOs accountable

Indeed, in all of the incidents, the lack of reliable sources of information for the HRW and Amnesty accusations against Israel stands out. In each case, it is clear that when HRW and Amnesty issued their initial condemnations of Israel, usually within a few hours of the incident, the organizations had little or no information about the central issues of military necessity and the nature of casualties. And later reports with altered condemnations were based more on conjecture than substantive research.

The most blatant example was the incident in Qana, where Israel responded to heavy Hezbollah rocket attacks with an air raid. One of the buildings was hit and collapsed, causing a number of deaths and injuries. Within hours, HRW blasted a press release in which Executive Director Ken Roth claimed that the "Israeli military is treating southern Lebanon as a free-fire zone, relating to the strike on Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, more than half of them children." HRW then launched a campaign charging Israel with war crimes, with nine separate “reports” and op-eds, as well as press conferences.

HRW’s campaign was echoed in media headlines, creating intense international pressure, and leading Prime Minister Olmert to declare a “48-hour suspension of aerial activity pending an investigation...” A unilateral halt in military action due to unverified NGO allegations was unprecedented, allowed Hezbollah forces to regroup, prolonging the war, and probably costing many lives.

Yet, as our research reveals, HRW had no credible evidence for its claims. Roth, HRW researcher Lucy Mair (who had written propaganda for Electronic Intifada before joining HRW) and others far from the battleground, had inflated civilian casualty claims and erased the Hezbollah attacks that constituted the real war crimes as well as legal justification for Israeli actions. To create the façade of “fact finding”, the initial HRW statement referred to “researchers” in Lebanon, but they provided no names or means to verify HRW’s claims. Later reports either provided no sources or attributed allegations to “witnesses” who could well have been Hezbollah allies or operatives. The allegations that Israel had criminally and deliberately bombed Lebanese civilians were unsourced and false.

As the contradictions emerged, HRW’s Mair admitted that the Lebanese Red Cross had reported 28 dead, including Hezbollah “martyrs,” but HRW chose to continue its false accusations against Israel.

The catch-22 in which the NGOs placed Israel is illustrated by their “proof” that Israel knew that civilians were in the building, near the Hezbollah targets. On August 3, 2006, Amnesty International “proved” that an Israeli investigation showing that the Israeli military had not known of the civilians was a “whitewash” because “survivors of the attack … stated that they had been in the building for some two weeks and that their presence must have been known to Israeli forces.” On the same day, August 3, 2006, Human Rights Watch “proved” that the Israeli claim that the “civilians were not seen because they had been hiding in the building for some days” could not be believed because a “survivor” of the attack stated that the civilians only entered the building “around 6 pm on July 29,” i.e., only seven hours before the bombing.

Two opposite and contradictory accounts of the facts, but the same result: the NGOs pronounced that the facts prove Israeli guilt.

Sadly, observers - even Israeli officials - have tended to give the NGOs a free pass for their fabrications. And the model of making up the facts to “prove” an Israel guilt presumed from the start has been repeated in subsequent conflicts, most prominently by the Goldstone Mission’s now discredited 2009 report on the Gaza conflict.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch claim to be promoting universal values by prosecuting their political war against the State of Israel. But justice will only truly be served when the NGOs are held accountable for their distortions.

Abraham Bell is professor of law at Bar Ilan University. Gerald Steinberg is professor of political studies at Bar Ilan University



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