Israeli singer-songwriter Dudu Tassa on Monday blasted former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters over his continued campaign against artists who choose not to boycott Israel despite his calls on them to do so.
In a post on Instagram directly addressing Waters, Tassa wrote, “Dear Roger, Are you not tired of obsessing over the same musicians who are simply trying to bring good into the world? Move on. Your incredible music has already contributed and inspired an entire generation. Now, all the noise achieves nothing. Music is what matters. Got it?”
Tassa’s post came after Waters, in a conversation on The Empire Files podcast, criticized Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood over their refusal to cancel shows in Israel, even going so far as to label Yorke a “pr**k”.
Waters also responded to Greenwood’s comment, after performing in Tel Aviv this June, that "silencing Israeli artists for being born Jewish in Israel doesn't seem like any way to reach an understanding between the two sides of this apparently endless conflict."
Waters said he found that particular line to be "complete bulls**t” and added, "There is no argument to be made. There is the oppressed, and the oppressor; the oppressed are the Indigenous people of Palestine, the oppressor [is] the settler Colonial visitors from North America and Northern Europe. The oppressors are murdering all the oppressed people so they can steal their furniture, and their houses, and their olive trees, and their hills, and their water, and their land, and their birthright."
"There is nothing difficult to understand. It is not a conflict. It is a ge-no-cide, Thom and Jonny, and you are supporting it."
Greenwood and Tassa have been collaborating and releasing music since 2008 and have continued to perform together despite pressure on Greenwood to cancel his shows with Tassa.
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.
The British musician also regularly lashes out at artists who refuse to heed his calls for a boycott and go ahead with planned shows in Israel.
In 2017, after Australian singer Nick Cave spoke out against Waters’ support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Waters replied by arguing that the boycott of Israel “isn’t about music – it’s about human rights.”
In September, Cave criticized Waters’ support for BDS, and Waters fired back, saying among other things, “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.”
After Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack against Israel, Waters appeared on journalist Piers Morgan’s show and openly denied the atrocities committed by Hamas.