Musician, vocal critic of Israel Roger Waters retaliated by condemning the Australian rocker Nick Cave who said that he decided to hold concerts in Israel partly as a sign of opposition to the criticism of the former member of Pink Floyd and to take a principled position against the boycott of the Jewish state.
Waters, who supports the boycott along with some other musicians, released a statement condemning Cave for two sold-out concerts in Tel Aviv on Sunday and Monday, according to Israeli media.
"Nick, with all due respect, your music is irrelevant to this issue, mine too, Brian Ehn's and Beethoven's too, it's not about music, it's about human rights," Waters wrote.
Cave spoke at a press conference before the first concert on Sunday about his love for Israel and his decision to oppose the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the country because of its policies towards the Palestinians.
"If you come here you have to go through the public shaming of Roger Waters and his partners, and nobody likes to be publicly shamed," Cave said.
Waters did attack Cave, condemning him for "arrogant indifference" and "unmistakable indifference" to the suffering of the Palestinians.
"If at some point in the future you want to rise out of the darkness, all you have to do is open your eyes, we at BDS will welcome you into the light," said bassist and singer Waters, who publicly criticizes artists if they plan to to visit or perform in Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League said in 2013, after previously defending Waters against accusations of anti-Semitism, that "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have completely seeped into" the former Pink Floyd frontman.
Musician, composer, producer, music theorist and singer Brian Eno was more lenient than Waters in his response to Cave's performance and statement, writing that he appreciated him and that the popular singer-songwriter had been generous in supporting Palestinian humanitarian causes, so he had the right to come up with his own conclusions whether or not he supports the boycott movement.
Eno also wrote that he was born on May 15, 1948, the very day Israel was created and that this was a mere coincidence, but that he was partly destined to sympathize and respect that country and its technological, intellectual and social achievements.
"I still respect all of those things, but as I learn more and more about the despicable situation that Israel's ambitions have created for the Palestinians, I feel a growing sense of horror. It seems to me that Israel is digging itself a deep dark hole where it will undoubtedly find the company of Trump and various nationalists across the country," Eno wrote, adding that Cave was directly responsible for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv.
Eno sent a letter to Cave a few years ago, asking him not to perform in Israel and to sign that he would not, and he replied that he would not. However, he did not perform in Israel for two decades.
"All of a sudden it became very important for me to take a stand, for me, against these people who are trying to imprison musicians, to intimidate them to censor musicians and to silence them," Cave said, adding that in some ways it was the boycott movement that led him to to perform in Israel.
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