With Hamas firing rockets and missiles all over Israel, Neil Young last week had to cancel his Thursday concert in Tel Aviv. But he intends to reschedule — he’s continuing to ignore the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement and its No. 1 advocate in the music world, the strident Roger Waters.
Young’s disappointment was clear; he said, “It is with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we must cancel our one and only Israeli concert due to tensions which have rendered the event unsafe at this time.”
The statement also announced his plan to donate to two organizations that teach Israeli and Palestinian children to play music together in order to help bridge the cultural gap.
Many Israelis were thrilled at the prospect of seeing Neil Young and Crazy Horse perform live in Hayarkon Park; I hope the event is rescheduled soon. As his generous donations demonstrate, Young believes the peace process can be furthered by cultural exchange and engagement between Israeli and Palestinian people.
It’s also encouraging that Young, renowned for his independence and integrity, rejected the personal and public pleas of the BDS crowd — in particular the pleas of Roger Waters. In a private letter to Young that he later posted on his public Facebook page, Waters asked Young to boycott, and so refuse to lend his rock-legend “presence” and “stature” to Israel.
A part of the anti-Israel BDS group for years, Waters has been growing more irrational.
In a recent interview with Counterpunch, he spewed anti-Semitic rants, including patently false accusations equating Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to South Africa’s apartheid regime and to Hitler’s systematic genocide of the Jews.
It’s sad to see a music legend and member of seminal rock act Pink Floyd — and one of the most successful touring individual artists in the past few years — try to browbeat other performers who announce that they intend to play in Israel. He’s failed recently with Cyndi Lauper and Alicia Keys — whom he indirectly demeans in his Facebook post as “lightweights.”
But Waters doesn’t just use vitriol and shame; he also tries obsequious praise. Thus, his letter to Young is unctuous about Young’s heroic efforts for the Bridge School, which the artist and his wife Pegi founded to help children with severe disabilities.
But is there also an implied threat — is Waters suggesting that he may decline to play at Young’s Bridge School benefit next year unless Young cancels his Israeli show?
Young got it right by rejecting the BDS boycott and instead joining the long list of other artists — Lauper and Keys, as well as Rihanna, Paul McCartney, McCoy Tyner, Elton John, the Black Eyed Peas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Seal and Akon, among many others — who’ve performed for their fans in Israel.
Neil Young’s gifts to charities fostering peace and learning between Israeli and Palestinian children indicate the healing nature of music and the direction that performing artists should take to help change people’s lives.
Craig Balsam is co-owner of indie label Razor & Tie and an advisory board member of Creative Community for Peace.