CCFP Staff - Creative Community for Peace

US group looks to prep visiting performers for onslaught of BDS pressure

Even before celebrities announce their visits, they must be braced to weather the inevitable boycott storm, says pro-Israel artists’ collective

By TRACY FRYDBERG in TIMES OF ISRAEL, 11 January 2018, 11:42 am

When artists book a show in Israel, they can expect a few things: a meaningful visit to the Western Wall, sunbathing in Tel Aviv, a dinner invite from the prime minister… and an intensive, aggressive online campaign demanding they cancel.

Even before packing up their sunscreen, negative anti-Israel, pro-boycott messages can be so overwhelming that some artists back out from sheer distress.

Bracing an artist ahead of time is the best way to prevent performers from caving in to the boycott pressure, Allison Krumholz, the executive director of Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), told The Times of Israel.

CCFP is a Los Angeles-based pro-Israel artists group that offers support and resources to help industry executives and their clients appropriately handle campaigns against their appearances in Israel. The organization was founded in 2012 after a string of high-profile performers caved to political pressure and canceled their shows here, Krumholz said.

David Renzer, the current chairman and CEO of Spirit Music Group, founded CCFP with Steve Schnur, a worldwide music executive at Electronic Arts (EA). Today, its international advisory board is comprised of more than 50 high-level entertainment industry figures.

We provide the counter to the attack and a balance to the narrative

“We provide the counter to the attack and a balance to the narrative,” Krumholz said. “We may not all share the same politics, but we do agree that singling out Israel as a target of cultural boycotts will not further peace.”

Nick Lieber, the organization’s editorial associate and analyst, said CCFP focuses on building personal relationships with industry executives and using them appropriately when there is concern of a boycott.

When an artist considers canceling a show in Israel or in fact, cancels it, CCFP has its staff or board members reach out to the artist and their representatives, encouraging them to reconsider and providing them with the “support” they need to make an informed decision, said Lieber.

What that support entails varies, he said.

Lieber said that the organization also creates educational forums for industry figures around promoting peace through the arts, such as an event CCFP held in June at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles which brought executives together under the theme of using the arts to build bridges.

But CCFP’s ability to properly prepare artists depends largely on the cooperation of the Israeli promoters, some of whom prefer not to warn their artists about the likelihood of backlash that inevitably accompanies an announcement of an upcoming show in Israel.

“Concert promoters in Israel have different approaches for addressing BDS pressure with the artists they bring,” Krumholz said.

Some promoters, said Krumholz, do speak of the possibility of BDS backlash with their artists ahead of time, but despite high-profile cancellations, some still don’t.

“We’re of the opinion that it’s better to do so, as a number of cancellations have simply been due to the shock of suddenly coming under massive pressure on social media and were completely unrelated to any of the actual arguments BDS makes,” she said.

Pop star Lorde recently canceled an Israel performance set for this upcoming June, days after announcing on Twitter that she was considering pulling out of the gig. The singer said at the time that she was reconsidering due to a campaign led by two pro-Palestinian activists in her native New Zealand, which was also accompanied by a virulent anti-Israel social media crusade.

One of the activists, Justine Sachs, is a founder of Dayenu — a Jewish online activism page that promotes a boycott of Israel over its presence in the West Bank.

“I think that art is politics, I think that artists are connected to political statements, I think that for an artist to go to Israel now is a political statement,” Sachs told Walla, a Hebrew media website.

In the end, Lorde claimed that the “overwhelming number of messages and letters” she received led to her decision to cancel the show.

Lorde’s social media accounts were flooded by an apparently highly organized BDS campaign.

“Nearly every artist who schedules a show in Israel receives some level of boycott pressure on social media, but some, including Lorde, certainly receive far more than others,” said Lieber.

After Lorde caved to pressure, Eran Arielli, co-founder of Naranjah, the company that was promoting her Israel concert, wrote on Facebook that, “The truth is that I was naive to think that an artist of her age would contain the pressure involved in coming to Israel, and I take full responsibility.”

The cancellation isn’t a first for Naranjah, the concert producer wrote on Facebook. (Arielli declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Expressing its disappointment with Lorde’s decision, CCFP produced a statement signed by 50 industry executives and artists.

To maintain its close ties to industry executives, CCFP can’t discuss what happened behind the scenes with Lorde, but Lieber said he thinks “the letter, compounded with all of the negative feedback, probably really affected her.”

Lieber said that social media chatter revolving around Lorde’s Israel show was too congested to provide a concrete breakdown of sides — though the majority of comments on the singer’s social media accounts were anti-Israel and pro-boycott.

He believes that about 50 percent are anti-Israel, 25% are pro-Israel and another 25% are extremely pro-Israel to the point of being unhelpful to the cause by name-calling and insulting the artist.

Although cases such as Lorde’s make major headlines, such cancellations are rare these days. In recent years, Israel has also seen a flood of veteran acts, which tend to handle BDS pressure with more finesse. Notably, Paul McCartney, who despite receiving death threats, went ahead with his concert coinciding with Israel’s 60th birthday in 2008 and also visited a music school in Bethlehem. Leonard Cohen, who after scheduling a 2009 concert in Ramat Gan, offered to play a corresponding concert in Ramallah. His offer was spurned.

Other artists like Radiohead and Nick Cave have not merely ignored but actively hit back against BDS efforts. This past November, Cave went so far as to say that it was thanks to BDS that he decided to play in Israel.

“I love Israel, and I love Israeli people,” said Cave at a press conference in Tel Aviv, adding that he wanted to take “a principled stand against anyone who tries to censor and silence musicians. So really, you could say, in a way, that the BDS made me play Israel.”

Since 2011, CCFP has tracked more than 1,000 concerts by international artists in Israel, including performances by Sia, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Lady Gaga.

About 30 artists — including Elvis Costello, Thurston Moore, and Lauryn Hill — have canceled due to BDS pressure during this period. However, a handful of those ultimately decided to play in Israel at a later date, such as the Pixies and Santana, Krumholz said.

Eventually, Krumholz hopes her organization will be made redundant as boycotts increasingly prove an ineffective means to promoting peace.

“If anything,” she said, “turn up the music, expose art to wider audiences, and encourage people from all cultures to interact, communicate and inspire peace and understanding.”

Original article at The Times of Israel.

CCFP Staff In Ignore, Press Release

Hundreds Attend Los Angeles Premiere of New Documentary Discussing Roger Waters. Global Anti-Semitism and the Boycott Israel Movement

Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center – More than 200 people attended the LA premiere of the documentary “Wish You Weren’t Here,” hosted by Creative Community For Peace (CCFP) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

The film, by filmmaker and New York Times #1 best-selling author Ian Halperin, examines the actions and motivations of former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, a major supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in the context of the troubling rise in global anti-Semitism.

The film features interviews with leading figures including celebrated lawyer Alan Dershowitz, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, and CCFP co-founder and chairman/CEO of Spirit Music Group, David Renzer.

Following the screening, a panel of influential Hollywood executives held a Q&A. Panelists included: David Renzer; Rick Rosen, WME Founding Partner and Head of Television; David Lande, Esq., entertainment attorney with Ziffren Bittenham; and filmmaker Ian Halperin. It was moderated by Moriah Films writer/director and Academy Award® winner Richard Trank. In attendance was Howard Rosenman, producer of the film, Call Me By Your Name.

Capturing the theme of the evening and the importance of ending the cultural boycott of Israel, David Renzer stated during the panel, “We as the creative community are here to support our artists and to support the idea of art and culture…This isn’t about politics. This is about culture and arts, and that’s the message we have to remember…This is about the power that art, music, and culture have to be healing in this time when we need it more than ever.”

Together, the panelists have dealt with boycott related issues for Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Scarlett Johansson, and many other high-profile artists.The full Q&A can be viewed here. Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) is an organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry who promote the arts as a means to peace, support artistic freedom, and counter the cultural boycott of Israel. We understand the power that our music, our films, our television shows, and all arts have. We encourage artists to participate, rather than to shun, to express rather than to suppress. If anything, turn up the music, expose our art to wider audiences, and encourage people from all cultures to interact, communicate and inspire peace and understanding.
www.creativecommunityforpeace.com

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context. The Center confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations. With a constituency of over 400,000 households in the United States, it is accredited as an NGO at international organizations including the United Nations, UNESCO, OSCE, Organization of American States (OAS), the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) and the Council of Europe. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Simon Wiesenthal Center maintains offices in New York, Toronto, Miami, Chicago, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Jerusalem.www.wiesenthal.com

CCFP Staff In Cultural Boycott

The Battle For Cultural Freedom

By Simon Johnson, Jewish Telegraph

As a teenager in Bury in the 1980’s, it was almost obligatory to be a fan of The Smiths. From the moment that the first thrilling chords of “What Difference does it make” rolled across the school common room, I was a fan. And if you were a fan of The Smiths, then you came to know well the idiosyncrasies and utterances of their lead singer, Morrissey.

Through his equally successful solo career after The Smiths, Morrissey has luxuriated in his idiosyncratic attitudes and contrary comments. Those of us who are fans are well used to these and take them with a grain of salt, as evidence of Morrissey’s individual world view. In the last two weeks, though, his contrariness in relation to Israel has exposed him to the wrath of the “Boycotteers”- three ageing entertainers- Roger Waters, Brian Eno and Ken Loach- of whom, more later.

Morrissey, in recent years, has become a fan of Israel. He has played there a number of times and was shown enthusiastically performing whilst draped in an Israeli flag. It clearly had an impact on his creativity as two tracks on his new solo album are inspired by his experiences- They are called “Israel”and “The girl from Tel Aviv who would not kneel”. He has taken on the Boycotteers in the public arena, and stuck to his guns in playing in Israel.

He is not the only one. In recent weeks and months, there has been a stream of artists thumbing their noses at the Boycotteers and playing in Israel.

When I returned from Israel on business earlier this month, I discovered, whilst at Baggage Reclaim, that I had returned on the same flight as Boy George and Culture Club, who had just played an hugely successful gig in Israel. In the last couple of weeks, Nick Cave performed in Israel, and earlier in the summer, Radiohead played a series of dates.

There are, of course, many artists who play in Israel. I have drawn attention to these four artists since their decision to play in Israel stirred the ancient slumbering forms of The Boycotteers- Messrs Waters, Eno and Loach- whose wrath has been incurred. They have engaged in public attacks on the artists, and are beginning to realise that their world view, expounding cultural boycotts of Israel, is not necessarily shared by Artists in the generation below them.

You see, the Boycotteers do not like Artists to play in Israel. They advocate a cultural boycott of Israel and display churlish indignation when an artist does not heed their tiresome and predictable calls for a boycott.

Messrs Waters, Eno and Loach are stuck fighting the ideological battles of the 1970’s. Their concern for the plight of the Palestinian people has prompted them to reach into the radical’s box of tricks from the 1970’s. They have a misty eyed recollection of their battles against Apartheid in South Africa. And because, in their particular view of the world, Israel displays similar behaviour, then the old tactics of boycotts and isolation, can be dusted off and applied to Israel.

They use the Left’s favoured euphemistic sophistry, and describe this as a question of human rights. They think that boycotting and isolating the Israeli people is the only way to make the Israeli Government change their policies.

The problem for the Boycotteers, though, is that the next generation of artists do not see things through the same foggy and cracked lenses. There is a growing generation of artists who believe that culture can be used to build bridges, rather than create division.

So, the Boycotteers lash out publicly at any Artist who dares to disagree with them. Nick Cave is the latest to have felt the public wrath of Roger Waters. But Culture Club got the same. And, in the summer, Thom Yorke, lead singer of Radiohead, also hit back at a public rebuke from the Boycotteers. These recent exchanges have set out clearly the difference of perspective of those who see Boycotts as a means of effecting change and those who reject boycotts as only sowing division.

Morrissey, Nick Cave, Culture Club and Radiohead know that to play in a country does not signify agreement with the Government of that country. Artists have tremendous power. Any of these artists could use the freedom of speech which Israel affords to level bitter criticism at the Government if they wanted. This is their right. I recall one of my favourite bands, REM, being so upset at the direction of US Government policy, that they wrote the song “Bad Day” and proceeded to play it around the US, the world and on prime time TV.

Increasing numbers of artists know that boycotts create division and do nothing to promote peace or coexistence. They realise that Israel is a thriving commercial market, with knowledgeable, passionate fans, and they increasingly want to play there. What they also realise is that playing in Israel actively affords them the right to put across their political views if they choose to do so. They also realise that boycotting a country is a blunt, tired instrument that does nothing to put across their political view.

The Boycotteers hate that they can not just snap their fingers and have younger artists meekly do what they say and boycott Israel. It is instructive to read their increasingly desperate “open letters” to artists such as Nick Cave. Their arguments are repetitive and one can sense their anger rising as they write with incredulity that an artist should not simply do what these “great” men say.

In fact, their efforts have been counterproductive. Nick Cave said that he was playing in Israel because of BDS. What a way of putting a metaphorical two fingers up at the Boycotteers.

The tide is turning. Waters, Eno and Loach are on the wrong side of this debate now. The superb work of groups like Culture for Coexistence and Creative Communities for Peace is helping to cement the message that boycotts create division and it is only through cultural engagement that peace and cooexistence can be fostered.

Meanwhile, Morrissey is being abused on social media for his inclusion of songs about Israel on his album. My advice is, to have a listen to “Every Day is like Sunday”, and then get on social media and support him. Oh, and why not buy his album? It is not often that Israel and Tel Aviv are part of the titles of songs!

CCFP Staff In Press Release

From Germany to Los Angeles, accusations of anti-Semitism piling up against Roger Waters

From the headlines he’s been making, it seems that former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is becoming better known for his politics than for his music.

Take this week, for example, when German broadcasters made the decision not to air his concerts in Germany next summer following public backlash against his actions toward Israel, which are deemed by many to be anti-Semitic.

Waters is a vocal supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel in the cultural, academic, diplomatic, and economic arenas with the end goal of eliminating it as a state.

In support of this movement, which is often accused of hypocrisy and discrimination for singling out Israel — and only Israel — among all the countries of the world, Waters spends a great deal of time putting pressure on his colleagues within the music industry to cancel their upcoming concerts in Israel, often using extreme and inaccurate language to convince them to do so.

For instance, he has compared the actions of the Israeli government to those of Nazi Germany, saying that the parallels between what Israel is doing to the Palestinians today and what Germany did to the Jews in the 30s are “so crushingly obvious.”

Considering Nazi Germany engaged in a systematic campaign of genocide against the Jewish people which resulted in the deaths of 6 million Jews — a third of the entire Jewish population of the world — whereas Israel is in a complex political struggle with the Palestinians that, though it has resulted in far too many deaths on both sides, cannot objectively be viewed as anywhere near the Holocaust in terms of scale or purpose, this is generally considered nothing more than a completely false way to delegitimize the State of Israel and to turn the Jews into the ultimate villain.

He has also used classic anti-Semitic language about an all-powerful Jewish lobby, claiming that other musicians are afraid to oppose it out of fear for their careers.

This has lead the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — an organization which fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry — to declare in 2013 that “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” have “seeped into the totality” of his views.

Many musicians who have found themselves the target of Roger Waters’ BDS pressure — including Thom Yorke, Nick Cave, Alan Parsons, and Dionne Warwick – have spoken out against him as well, accusing him of bullying and censorship.

Especially relevant after this week, the new documentary “Wish You Weren’t Here,” by #1 New York Times best-selling author Ian Halperin, examines the actions and motivations of Waters and the BDS movement in the context of the troubling rise in global anti-Semitism. On Tuesday December 5th, Creative Community For Peace (CCFP) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center will host a screening of the film at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

Following the screening, a panel of influential Hollywood executives, together with Mr. Halperin, will hold a Q&A. Other panelists will include: CCFP co-founder David Renzer, chairman/CEO of Spirit Music Group; Rick Rosen, WME Founding Partner and Head of Television; and David Lande, Esq., entertainment attorney with Ziffren Brittenham. It will be moderated by Moriah Films writer/director and Academy Award® winner Richard Trank.

The event, which is open to the public, is expected to attract many high-level entertainment industry executives. Anybody wishing to attend should RSVP at this link. For those who don’t live in the Los Angeles area, the event will be live streamed on our Facebook page.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/from-germany-to-los-angeles-accusations-of-anti-semitism-piling-up-against-roger-waters/

CCFP Staff In Press Release

“A Principled Stand”: Creative Community For Peace Responds To Roger Waters/ Nick Cave Controversy

Nick Doesn’t Cave

In his November 18^th press conference prior to his two sold-out Tel Aviv concerts, Nick Cave explained why he was defying demands that he cancel these performances. “It suddenly became very important,” Cave said, “to make a stand against those people who are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians, and to silence musicians.” Cave was referring specifically to the open letter from the BDS-backed ‘Artists For Palestine’ – signed by personalities that include Roger Waters, Angela Davis and Thurston Moore – that employed such aggressively defamatory terms as ‘raiding and plundering’, ‘promotion of crimes’ and ‘apartheid regime’ to describe Israeli policies. If musicians choose to tour in Israel, Cave pointed out, they “have to go through a sort of public humiliation from Roger Waters and company.” Cave concluded with a boldly triumphant refute of the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions’ efforts: “So really, you could say, in a way, that the BDS made me play Israel,” he said.

“We hurl our glasses into the fire of your arrogant unconcern, and smash our bracelets on the rock of your implacable indifference,” Roger Waters responded, scoffing at Cave’s assertion that BDS demands for the cultural boycott of Israel is a form of artistic censorship. However, artists ranging from Paul McCartney to Radiohead to Gloria Gaynor have all described the bullying tactics of the boycott Israel movement and its self-designated spokesperson Waters. And it has become increasingly clear that Waters and company have something more in mind than changing Israel’s policies and promoting the rights of Palestinians: the BDS movement seeks to impose one-sided political change on Israel and is attempting to use strategies of disinformation to defame and isolate the country. Many in the BDS movement openly concede that their ultimate aim is to undermine the country’s legitimacy and even its right to exist. And boycotters who wish to keep artists out of Israel do so with the hope of turning it into a pariah state that will be generally vilified and rejected.

The Creative Community For Peace strongly believes that any orchestrated effort to silence artists is dangerously misplaced and counterproductive, and we support the courage of performers like Nick Cave, as well as Thom Yorke, Alan Parsons, Ozzy Osbourne, Morrissey, Boy George, Jerry Seinfeld, Charles Aznavour, Jon Bon Jovi, Carlos Santana and scores of other artists who have recently defied BDS demands to cancel their Israel tours. CCFP knows that concerts in Israel – despite being a place where audiences of Jews, Arabs and Muslims can come together in peace – won’t solve the conflict. But for Roger Waters, championing a movement that engages in artistic censorship and seeks to keep Israelis and Palestinians apart will certainly not hasten any peaceful resolution. Furthermore, these demands for cultural boycott seriously misunderstand the role the arts play in broadening dialogue and maintaining sound democracies.

CCFP welcomes discussions of Israel’s policies and actions, but we will not tolerate blatant misinformation, distorted versions of history, or a campaign for an end to the State of Israel. Independent-minded artists such as Nick Cave build bridges of consciousness and connectivity. And through the courage of artists like Cave and others, we can continue to choose to create pathways to peace.

CCFP Staff In Quotes

Boy George

CCFP Staff In Cultural Boycott

‘Wish you weren’t here’: Is Roger Waters a peace activist or an anti-Semite?

The ex-Pink Floyd front man’s passionate calls for a cultural boycott of Israel are the subject of a new documentary. Director Ian Halperin says Waters must be held to account for his actions

By Nirit Anderman | Oct. 30, 2017 | 11:56 PM

He’s written some of the greatest songs of all time, fronted one of the most influential and successful groups in the history of rock’n’roll and his “The Wall Live” tour was the highest-grossing for a solo artist. Yet despite this, Roger Waters infuriates a lot of people.

The decision by the former Pink Floyd singer-bassist to become a political personality and exploit his fame and status to fight Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians drives ardent Zionists crazy – they see him as an enemy of Israel who is damaging the Jewish state’s reputation.

Now, a Jewish-Canadian filmmaker has decided to take off the gloves and go head-to-head with the venerable musician, stating unequivocally that Roger Waters is an anti-Semite.

Investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Ian Halperin, 53, calls his new film “Wish You Weren’t Here,” riffing on one of Pink Floyd’s biggest hits while launching an unapologetic, all-out assault on a member of one of the most respected rock bands ever.

In the documentary – which just toured select Canadian cinemas – Halperin conducts a long series of interviews with subjects who each explain why Waters isn’t a performing artist touring the world with a legitimate political agenda, but instead is an anti-Semite who uses the stage to spread hatred and lies about Israel, and about Jews in general.

The documentary also tries to sketch a contemporary portrait of global anti-Semitism, which is raising its head in various countries, marking Waters as the undisputed leader spearheading this focused assault.

One of the talking heads, David Renzer, says Waters must be taken seriously because he remains one of the most important performing artists in the world, and comes from a legendary band that still gives him an abundance of credibility.

Renzer is the former head of Universal Music Publishing Group (the second largest music company in the world) and one of the founders of Creative Community for Peace, a group established by members of the U.S. entertainment industry to combat the cultural boycott of Israel.

Renzer says he can’t judge Waters’ personal motives, but can relate to things he’s said and actions he’s taken. The music exec accuses Waters of saying “some extreme things,” like how Israel treats the Palestinians worse than the way the Nazis treated the Jews. Renzer adds that someone with such an extreme viewpoint is not a “credible person.”

In recent years, Waters has become one of the art world’s central figures in the fight to persuade other artists to join the cultural boycott of Israel. Indeed, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement obtained Waters’ permission to use his name on letters they send out to various artists, according to Halperin.

When the director asks former British Prime Minister Tony Blair whether the comparison Waters makes between Israel and Nazi Germany is an anti-Semitic act, Blair answers in the affirmative. Blair says the criticism Waters directs at Israel is so ridiculous, it reaches the point where it expresses a basic hostility to the idea of a homeland for the Jewish people.

Halperin first rose to prominence in December 2008, when he was one of the first to claim Michael Jackson was suffering from a serious medical condition. He predicted that Jackson had only six months to live, and the singer indeed died in June 2009. Halperin’s biography, “Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson,” topped the New York Times bestseller list.

Halperin also wrote “Hollywood Undercover,” in which he pretended to be a gay actor and also infiltrated the Church of Scientology (becoming one of the first journalists to do so). He also wrote two books examining the death of Kurt Cobain, exploring the theory that the Nirvana front man was murdered rather than committed suicide, as well as books about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Celine Dion and others.

In recent years, he’s turned his eye toward making documentaries. In a phone interview with Haaretz, Halperin explains that the impetus for his film came after he heard Waters comparing Israel to the apartheid regime in South Africa.

“When I first heard that Waters was singling out Israel and calling for boycotts,” Halperin says, “I was appalled – because I knew that Israel was by far the most democratic country in the Middle East; that it respects women’s rights, gay rights; there’s over 2 million Israeli Arabs and they all have votes, some sit in the Knesset.

“I was just wondering why he is comparing the two countries when South Africa was a two-class system and Israel is not. Sure, the policies of Israel you can criticize, but to call for a boycott against the most democratic country in the Middle East to me is misleading – and he has to be held accountable for it.”

Halperin admits he’s no expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but says he is an expert “about being the son of a Holocaust survivor. And my father hid in a hole in the ground for seven years [in Poland] when he was 6 years old. To have somebody like Roger Waters compare Israel to Nazi Germany was the biggest insult to the memory of 6 million innocent Jewish people who died. It really shows to me that he’s an anti-Semite and that he has an agenda not only against Israel, but against the Jewish people.”

Propaganda techniques

Halperin wouldn’t let Haaretz view the entire film and instead sent a video link showing the first 32 minutes; he claims this was an instruction from the producers (the complete documentary is 96-minutes). He also plans to screen the documentary in Israel and is set to visit these shores next month for a private screening. No date has been set for a public Israeli screening.

The opening scene in “Wish You Weren’t Here” makes for uncomfortable viewing, being reminiscent of propaganda techniques that don’t shy away from using any means necessary to frighten viewers.

“Global harassment of Jews has reached a seven-year high,” say captions that appear on the screen in blazing red, bloodlike colors, sprayed onto the screen, flashing the words “Paris,” “Hollywood,” “Iran” and “BDS” in rapid succession. It’s hard not to imagine that a certain prime minister who would have been only too happy to screen this during his speech at the UN General Assembly.

This intro is followed by an array of news reports about anti-Semitic attacks worldwide, as captions present the numbers of anti-Semitic attacks in different countries in 2016: 1,309 in the United Kingdom; 1,266 incidents in the United States; 644 in Germany and 294 in France.

“What is it about Roger? Why is he so bugged about Israel?” wonders the narrator. Then in a speech at an UN conference, the veteran rock star is seen talking about violations of international law that Israel is committing and how it prevents Palestinians from obtaining their rights. He calls for an end to the Israeli occupation in the territories and for granting the Palestinians the right to self-determination.

Waters is clearly investing great efforts to promote a cultural boycott of Israel – but without much success, according to this documentary. As proof, we are offered a long list of artists who performed in Israel over the summer months, including Aerosmith, Justin Bieber, Tears for Fears and Guns N’ Roses. And in order to present arguments for and against the boycott, Halperin’s film dwells on this summer’s highly publicized spat between Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Waters, who tried to dissuade the singer and his band from performing in Tel Aviv.

Flying pigs with Stars of David

Halperin says that when he started researching Waters, “I found out that he had pigs floating around at his concert with the Star of David emblazoned upon them. If he’d been doing that at his concerts with a Muslim crescent, he wouldn’t get out of the arena alive.

“But for some reason, this guy’s able to get away with it when it comes to the Jewish people. I’ll be honest, all kidding aside, I’m not a proctologist but I know an asshole and jerk when I see one – and Roger Waters is that.

“He’s making a huge mistake, [and] he owes Israel and the Jewish people a huge apology. Because what he’s doing is bringing hatred and negative stereotypes of Israel and the Jewish people to masses. He’s the highest-grossing solo artist of all time on this tour – more than Madonna, Bruce Springsteen or Michael Jackson.”

The flying pigs are in fact a motif that has accompanied Pink Floyd’s live shows since 1977: gigantic, pig-shaped inflatables that float above the stage and audience. After he left the band in 1985, following bitter arguments and prolonged legal disputes with the other members, Waters continued using the pigs in his solo shows.

At a July 2013 concert in Belgium, the pigs were stamped with a Star of David – leading to a huge public outcry, with many people accusing Waters of anti-Semitism. On the other hand, the pigs have over the years also previously borne such diverse symbols as the hammer and sickle, the U.S. dollar sign, the McDonald’s logo and even the image of U.S. President Donald Trump.

It’s OK for someone to have different political opinions than yours. Where do you draw the line between anti-Semitism and somebody who just sees Israel in a different light?

“I’m a big proponent of the First Amendment. I’m the first person to say, ‘Hey, if you want to criticize Israel and its policies, no problem.’ But if you call for a boycott against Israel, which is by far the most democratic country in the Middle East, and if you have pigs flying around with the Jewish symbol, the Star of David, and if you make all these crazy statements that Israel has to be given back and stuff like that, I have a big problem with it. I think there are bigger human rights violators than Israel in the world – if [Waters] is so concerned about human rights, why doesn’t he target Iran, Syria, China, Russia?

“The [other] problem I have is when he calls Israel an apartheid system – and that to me is completely false, because I am an expert on that subject. I was very instrumental in the campaign to free Nelson Mandela, and it is completely apples and oranges. South Africa was a two-class system; Israel is not. In Israel, everybody has a vote, everybody can run for office.”

Except for the Palestinians.

“There’s more than two million Israeli Arabs living in Israel. They all have votes, and some sit in parliament. That’s not what South Africa was about.”

The good Arab

The world premiere of “Wish You Weren’t Here” took place in Toronto on October 2, in association with B’nai B’rith Canada. Together with Halperin, the organization decided that the film’s critical content in itself wasn’t enough, so they turned the screenings themselves into acts of protest.

Since Waters was in Canada on his latest world tour in October, the organizers decided to follow him and screen the documentary everywhere he was performing, showing it on the same evening, in the same city. Six such screenings have taken place, including in Quebec City, Ottawa and Montreal. Halperin says the crowds at these screenings have been “mixed,” with Jews, Palestinians and “some people who are curious about it.”

The movie includes interviews with Pope Francis, the Jewish-American billionaire Ronald Lauder, the Jewish-American jurist Alan Dershowitz and many others. Some have thought-provoking things to say: Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, for example, questions the decision to boycott Israel, of all countries, pointing to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

By contrast, other parts of the film provoke discomfort and embarrassment. One cabdriver, supposedly representing a typical Palestinian, defends Israel, saying that it isn’t just killing Palestinians randomly, but is only doing so to defend Israeli homes.

A psychologist is called upon to comment on the fact that Waters’ father was killed while serving as a British soldier in Italy during World War II, when Waters was only 5 months old. She offers a particularly excruciating psychological analysis: Apparently, this trauma makes Waters identify with victims, not wanting to believe that his father died in vain. This then leads him to conclude that the Nazis were right when they set out to kill the Jews. Come on, really?

Waters himself is not interviewed in the film, but many minutes are devoted to excerpts from old recorded speeches. Halperin says he approached Waters for an interview or for comments, but that nobody from Waters’ camp responded. The director claims, though, that critics who’ve seen the film tell him it was very fair, since he also presents Waters’ side of the story – even interviewing people like Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky who support Waters’ views. “It’s not a hatchet job at all,” says Halperin.

The director insists that when Waters ends the Canadian leg of his tour this month, he won’t be pursuing him elsewhere with his documentary, noting that he’s already in production on two other films. “I’m not obsessed with Roger Waters,” he laughs.

Halperin and B’nai B’rith’s protest against Waters over the past month joined the pro-Israel protest that has been accompanying the musician’s North American tour. In June, the Zionist Organization of America tried to arrange a counter-boycott – turning to several stadium-owning U.S. companies with a request not to allow Waters to perform in them. This failed.

Subsequently, several attempts were also made through the courts to prevent Waters’ performing in Long Island, claiming this contravened a local law against the BDS movement. This attempt also failed, though, and the performance was held last month as scheduled.

A few days later, pro-Israel demonstrators were stationed outside two Waters performances in Brooklyn and New Jersey. The protesters paraded 12-foot-high inflatable Pinocchio dolls, bearing signs paraphrasing a classic Pink Floyd song: “Roger Waters: We don’t need your lies about Israel.”

Halperin says he has no link to these demonstrations. “I have no time to hold a picket sign against Roger Waters, who I do consider a good artist, I gotta be honest,” he says. “I like his show, except for his politics. I mean, I respect anybody who’s 74 years old who is jumping around on stage for three hours with a decent show. But no, I’m not in front of his house every day with picket signs.”

What about your film’s funding? Did Jewish organizations help finance it?

“I like when people mention the funding,” he laughs, “because I could be a prick and say, ‘Hey, who funds your life? Who buys your groceries?’ Look, fortunately I’ve sold millions of books; my films have been seen in 180 countries so most of it I funded myself. There isn’t one main Jewish organization or anything, I have no time for that.

“I’m a person that puts my money where my mouth is, and usually when I get behind something, I’m not afraid to take a financial risk. Usually it pays off, because I’m respected in my business and people want to work with me, and I’ll recoup it.”

Your film deals with Waters, but also attempts to paint a contemporary picture of anti-Semitism worldwide. Would you say anti-Semitism is growing or declining right now?

“Unfortunately, it’s thriving, and that’s what concerns me the most. Face it, Waters is 74; he has his own platform, but he’s [probably] not going to be around too much longer. But with contemporary anti-Semitism, it’s extremely dangerous because in Europe there’s less than 2 million Jews left today. That is astounding and very concerning. Jews are leaving in droves, and [anti-Semitism] is spreading everywhere.

“The U.K. last year had the most recorded number of anti-Semitic attacks; the U.S. number two,” he continues. “Incredibly, my research shows that in France, the government clamped down after the Charlie Hebdo, kosher market and Bataclan [attacks, in January and November 2015, respectively], so in 2016, recorded anti-Semitic incidents decreased 50 percent in France. The French government at least has made a concerted effort to combat it, and I think that’s a good sign. But in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany, it’s thriving.”

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CCFP Staff In Quotes

Boy George

CCFP Staff In Press Release

Roger Waters shouldn’t silence Israeli artists

Surely, everybody is familiar with the phrase “The pot calling the kettle black.” Unfortunately it’s what comes to mind when reading Roger Waters’ 9/17/17 piece in The New York Times entitled “Congress Shouldn’t Silence Human Rights Advocates.”

In it, Waters attacks efforts to combat the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign, describing them as a form of censorship while continuing his irresponsible use of incendiary terms like ‘McCarthyite’, ‘blacklisting’ and ‘authoritarian. As an outspoken supporter of the most egregious aspects – and actions – of the BDS movement, Waters has no business taking a moral stand on free speech.

BDS is a campaign whose primary weapon is censorship, and whose activists put considerable energy into silencing Israeli artists, as well as international artists who schedule shows in, express support for, or even simply visit Israel:

In October 2014, during a French festival screening of the Israeli documentary “Dancing in Jaffa”, twenty BDS activists threw stink bombs into the audience while screaming anti-Israel epithets. Rather than accepting the Israeli’s director’s invitation to stay and engage in actual dialogue, they had to be forcibly removed. Fearing for her safety, the directorof the film – about Pierre Dulane’s efforts to bringJewish and Arab children together through ballroom dance – was escorted back to her hotel by French police.

In August 2015, American Jewish singer Matisyahuwas disinvited from the Rototom Sunsplash music festival in Spain after he refused to bow to demands by BDS activists that he — and only he — agree to certain political positions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The festival kept insisting that I clarify my personal views,” Matisyahu said in a statement, “which felt like clear pressure to agree with the BDS political agenda. Honestly it was appalling and offensive that, as the one publicly Jewish-American artist scheduled for the festival,they were trying to coerce me into political statements.”

BDS activists have sent death threats to artists scheduled to perform in Israel, including Salif Keita and Paul McCartney. They – along with The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Santana, Elton John, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Madonna, Guns N’ Roses, Regina Spektor, Chainsmokers, Pixies andRihanna instead enthusiastically performed in defiance of BDS demands that they cancel their tours. “We’ve played in Israel for over 20 years through a succession of governments,” Radiohead’s Thom Yorke said in a statement, “some more liberal than others. As we have in America. We don’t endorse [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”

BDS activists continue to urge governments to ban films made by or starring Israelis. This past summer, a BDS campaign contributed to Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Algeria all banning the international blockbuster Wonder Woman due to the leading role of “Zionist” actress Gal Gadot.

It’s easy to try to dismiss these incidents as outliers, but to do so would be disingenuous. On a daily basis, BDS barrages international artists with misinformation in an effort to pressure them to cancel their shows in Israel, and attempts to smear their reputation when they refuse. They bully and threaten Palestinians who want to cooperate and engage in dialogue with Israelis. BDS is committed to silencing Israelis and isolating Israel, to show the world a black and white narrative where only one side – the anti-Israel side – is represented.

In other words, BDS activists such as Roger Waters –supporters of a movement that calculatedly tramples on freedom of expression – should not be taking a moral stand on free speech while simultaneously orchestrating campaigns to destroy it. This is hypocrisy at its most blatant and dangerous. Despite Mr. Waters’ attempts to characterize BDS as ‘human rights activists’, it hasbecome increasingly clear that they are instead a band of bullies aimed at dismantling Israel. In fact, BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti has said, “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine,” referring to all of Israel. He reiterated that if all of BDS’ demands were met, “You would have a Palestine next to a Palestine, rather than a Palestine next to Israel.”

Finally, Waters blasts the Anti-Boycott Act as ‘serious lawfare’, insists it threatens ‘all those who believe in universal human rights and the First Amendment,’ and histrionically rails that it promises felony arrests ‘from archbishops to altar boys’. This is taking fear mongering to a whole new level. The fact is that existing federal law has long banned participation in boycotts of friendly nations, and that there is zero language in the current Act that would forbid anti-Israel activists from ever expressing support for boycotts. Waters also ignores that more than 20 states have already enacted laws or executive orders banning state business with companies that support BDS, not to mention the international anti-BDS trade legislation signed into law by President Obama in 2015.

We at Creative Community For Peace (CCFP) – and our colleagues throughout the entertainment industry who believe in the power of the arts to further peace –continue to hope that Roger Waters will reconsider this campaign of destructive misinformation and damaging rhetoric. Rather than demonizing colleagues and demanding prejudicial boycotts, we invite him to instead use his considerable voice and join us in building bridges between Israelis and Palestinians.

Read the full article in JPost.