Former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters and Australian singer Nick Cave had a back-and-forth in recent days, after Cave criticized Waters’ support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and Waters responded.
The saga began when Cave appeared on the Reason podcast and said that Waters’ support of the BDS movement is “embarrassing” and “deeply damaging.”
“I struggle with the idea of using my music to punish ordinary people for the actions of their government,” Cave said on the podcast, adding, “It's clearly not working in Israel right now. In my opinion, it energizes the worst elements of the current government. They exploit the isolation and the 'whole world is against us' mentality. It serves them to advance their malicious agendas—while at the same time punishing ordinary fans."
The singer also expressed his appreciation and love for Jewish and Israeli communities, adding that his fascination with the Bible as a young person led him to travel to Israel to see for himself where it all happened.
Cave performed in Tel Aviv in 2017 and said at the time that the BDS movement was the impetus for coming to play in Israel. He later performed again in Israel in 2022.
In response to Cave’s criticism, Waters published a video to Instagram in which he said that The Independent ran a piece about Cave’s statements and reached out to him for a comment, which he then read aloud.
“Here is my response to the Aussie bloke. Nick Cave. Nick f*****g Cave. The Palestinian mother/father carrying the bits of her or his dead child back along the bitter road to nowhere in a plastic bag pauses on the roadside to scratch a message in the rubble. Nick, here’s the message,” said Waters.
“Dear Nick Cave, we, the Indigenous people of Palestine, in this agony, implore you, please don’t cross the BDS picket line to sing for your supper in Israel. It’s not complicated, Nick. It’s not complicated.”
“That act — singing for your supper in Israel, Nick — that act serves to whitewash the 75-year-old Zionist Israeli occupation, land theft, apartheid, and genocide of our people, Nick. Please, please, please follow the example of Roger Waters and Brian Eno and many, many thousands of others who are active in the BDS movement. Nick, pay attention,” stated Waters.
Waters is notorious for his anti-Israel statements and actions. He has in the past compared Israel to Nazi Germany and has also called Zionism an “ugly stain” that must be removed.
Last year, Waters caused an uproar when he wore the Nazi-style uniform at a Berlin concert. In that same concert, Waters also compared Anne Frank to Shireen Abu Aqleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was shot dead while covering clashes between IDF soldiers and Palestinian Arab terrorists in Jenin.
Police in Berlin opened a criminal investigation into suspected incitement by Waters following the concert at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
After Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel, Waters appeared on journalist Piers Morgan’s show and openly denied the atrocities committed by Hamas.
Waters has verbally attacked many artists who chose to perform in Israel in recent years. In 2017, after Cave spoke out against Waters’ support for BDS, Waters replied by arguing that the boycott of Israel “isn’t about music – it’s about human rights.”