Earlier this week, Nick Cave guested on a podcast and said Roger Waters’ support of the BDS movement is “deeply embarrassing.” “I just don’t agree with a cultural boycott in general,” Cave explained, and now Waters has responded in a video on Instagram.
The Pink Floyd member explained that the Independent ran a piece about Cave’s statements and reached out to him for a comment. “Let’s see if they fucking publish it or not,” Waters said, and read his comment aloud:
Dear Independent, here is my response to the Aussie bloke. Nick Cave. Nick fucking 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. 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. Nick, every precious drop of empathy, every loving hand reached out, every voice raised in harmony counts. Roger Waters and Brian Eno are our brothers. Now, Nick, I must find somewhere to bury these bits of my child.
Waters also explained that a few years ago Cave did a press conference after performing in Israel and called him and Brian Eno “cowardly.” In response, Waters wrote a piece called “The Road To Damascus,” and read that as well:
So me and this Aussie bloke are walking down the road on our way to a gig. Just as we get there, we see these heavily armed soldiers on the other side of the road knocking this Arab bloke to the ground, kneeling on him, kicking him in the head, and beating him with their rifle bats. I cross over to the other side, Nick, remonstrate with the soldiers. The soldiers tell me to fuck off or they’ll arrest me. “Are you alright?” I ask the bloke. Daft question. “Can I help?” “Yes,” he says. “You’re musicians?” “Yes,” I reply. “They’ve stolen our land,” he says. “We are resisting. There is a cultural boycott. Please don’t do a gig here.” As he’s dragged away towards the paddy wagon, he tosses a small round metal badge in my direction. I return to the other side of the road where the Aussie bloke has been watching events unfold. “Did you see that?” I say. “Yeah, come on, we got a gig to do, mate.” “No,” I say. “There is a cultural boycott. That Arab bloke is a victim. The Israeli soldiers are perpetrators. We have a moral duty to stand with the victim.” “Don’t you try to bully me, you shameful, cowardly bastard,” says the Aussie bloke. And he pushes past me into the gig. I reach down into the dust, retrieve the BDS badge, and pin it to my lapel. Fuck you, Nick fucking Cave, you fucking prick.
Watch his video below.