The front man for the heavy metal band “Disturbed” excoriated Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters – a longtime critic of Israel – and other supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, comparing them to Nazis.
Speaking in an online interview with the Facebook group “Bring Disturbed to Israel”, lead singer David Draiman described his work to combat efforts to pressure recording artists to boycott Israel.
“I sit on the advisory board for the Creative Community for Peace,” said Draiman.
“Every time that a rock band is about to visit Israel, I’m one of the first people to contact them to try and reassure them, to make sure that BDS doesn’t end up getting in their heads, and that they don’t end up listening to the ridiculous words of Mr. Roger Waters and the rest of his gang of morons.”
"To elaborate a little bit on it, besides just my aggressive stance against” BDS, Draiman continued, “I don't think anybody in any country always agrees with everything their country does — I don't, okay? But I'm a very, very strong supporter of Israel forever and for our people. And regardless of whether it's Israel or anywhere else, boycotting an entire society and an entire people based on the actions of its government is absolutely ridiculous. And it doesn't accomplish anything.”
Draiman also ripped the BDS movement for the selective targeting of Israel, noting that oppressive governments like China’s had not elicited similar calls for boycotts, despite their controversial treatment of Muslim Uyghurs.
“I don't see boycotts happening of Russia; I don't see boycotts happening of many of some of the countries that have some of the most oppressive, closed-off regimes in existence on the face of the planet, where LGBTQ people are persecuted, where all kinds of minorities are persecuted. I don't see people boycotting China for what they're doing to their Muslim population. It's just Israel that gets this treatment, and I think we all know the reason behind that."
“There's a special hatred that exists for the Jewish people in this world, and it unfortunately can't be explained. It's something that has lasted and has been deep seated for centuries, and that's part of our burden as a people, unfortunately.”
The Disturbed front man went on call Roger Waters’ allies in the BDS movement “his Nazi comrades”.
"You can't accomplish anything in terms of trying to create peace, in terms of trying to create understanding by shutting things off. There has to be open roads of communication. You build bridges; you don't knock them down. And music and entertainment is the perfect way to bridge that gap. And the very notion that Waters and the rest of his Nazi comrades decide that this is the way to go ahead and foster change is absolute lunacy and idiocy — absolute. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's only based on hatred of a culture and of a people and of a society that have been demonized unjustifiably since the beginning of time.
This is not the first time Draiman has publicly criticized Roger Waters. In 2013, Draiman accused Waters of anti-Semitism over Waters’ use of an inflatable pig with a Star of David during a concert.
The 46-year-old Draiman was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, the grandchild of Holocaust survivors.
In his youth, Draiman studied in Jewish religious schools, including in Israel, before leaving the Orthodox community.
Disturbed is slated to perform in Israel for the first time on July 2nd. The concert is slated to take place at the Live Park in Rishon Letzion.