<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Pink Floyd Singer Joins Cultural Boycott of&nbsp;Israel]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span class="article-details"><span class="article-detail">Monday March 07, 2011 03:08</span><span class="article-detail"> by Saed Bannoura &#8211; IMEMC News</span></span></p>
<blockquote class="article-intro"><p>The former lead singer of the rock  band Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, is the latest artist to voice support for  the boycott of Israel, in an effort to pressure the state to end its  occupation of Palestinian land, and comply with international law and  signed agreements.</p></blockquote>
<p class="photo" style="text-align:center;"><a name="attachment36681"></a> <img class="summary-image aligncenter" title="Click on image to see full-sized version" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.imemc.org/attachments/mar2011/wall_waters_israel.jpg" alt="Roger Waters writes on the Wall in Bethlehem (image from The People's Cube blog)" width="340" height="213" /><br />
<em>Roger Waters writes on the Wall in Bethlehem (image from The People&#8217;s Cube blog)</em></p>
<p class="article">Waters&#8217;  decision comes a week after American pop legend Pete Seeger announced  his support for the boycott. Hundreds of artists, musicians and actors  have boycotted Israel in support of a 2005 call by hundreds of  Palestinian organizations for an &#8220;Academic and Cultural Boycott of  Israel&#8221;, similar to the boycott of apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Israeli artists and actors have also joined the boycott, refusing to  perform in Israeli settlements constructed on Palestinian land in  violation of international law. And a number of Israeli academics have  urged their colleagues abroad to boycott Israel and refuse to come to  Israel until the Israeli government complies with its obligations under  international law.</p>
<p>The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement picked up steam after the  Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip in 2008-9, which left over 1,400  Palestinians and 14 Israelis dead. Since that time, activists around the  world have launched campaigns to try to pressure Israel economically  and politically to change its policies toward the Palestinians, and  adhere with signed agreements.</p>
<p>Roger Waters&#8217; decision to join the boycott comes after he resisted a  campaign in 2005 to pressure him to not perform in Israel. During that  visit, however, he also spent time in the West Bank, and said that he  was profoundly moved by the conditions he witnessed there. He painted on  the Israeli Annexation Wall in Bethlehem a famous lyric from Pink  Floyd&#8217;s &#8216;The Wall&#8217; (a reference to the Berlin Wall): &#8220;We don&#8217;t need no  thought control&#8221;.</p>
<p>In his letter, released Sunday, supporting the boycott, Waters wrote  that in his view, &#8220;the abhorrent and draconian control that Israel  wields over the besieged Palestinians in Gaza, and the Palestinians in  the occupied West Bank, coupled with its denial of the rights of  refugees to return to their homes in Israel, demands that fair minded  people around the world support the Palestinians in their civil,  nonviolent resistance.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imemc.org/article/60800">Pink Floyd Singer Joins Cultural Boycott of Israel &#8211; International Middle East Media Center</a>.</p>
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