Former Pink Floyd frontman and notorious anti-Israel activist Roger Waters has called on singer Stevie Wonder to turn down the prestigious Wolf Prize award because it comes from Israel.
In a video posted on Facebook, Waters launched into one his now famous rants, telling Wonder: “This is an apartheid regime. This is Israel. You will be whitewashing them beyond all belief if you accept the prize.”
Last month, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin announced that the Wolf Prize was being awarded to the singer for “his tremendous contribution to music and society enriching the lives of entire generations of music lovers.”
In his video, Waters, who supports the “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) movement, noted that Wonder had canceled a concert at a 2013 fundraising gala for the Friends of Israel Defense Forces because of the “very delicate situation in the Middle East.”
At the time, Waters penned an open letter calling on artists to refuse perform the “apartheid regime.”
“What caused me to write this public letter was an affair where Stevie Wonder was hired to play a gala dinner for the Israeli Defense Forces on 6 December last year [after Operation Pillar of Defense]. I wrote a letter to him saying that this would be like playing a police ball in Johannesburg the day after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960,” Waters said.
“I’m going to stop rambling. It’s kind of late at night and I’ve had nearly a whole glass of wine, so I’m not making much sense,” he said, before adding, “I have huge respect for you, so hear my plea.”
It wasn’t the first time the BDS backer has taken to social media to launch into Israel-bashing monologues. In an incomprehensible tirade in May 2019, a bathrobe-clad Waters compared “ethno-supremacist” Israelis to aliens.
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