Former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters and Australian singer Nick Cave have engaged in a heated exchange in recent days after Cave criticized Waters’ support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, prompting a fiery response from Waters.
The back-and-forth began when Cave appeared on the Reason podcast, where he described Waters’ support of the BDS movement as “embarrassing” and “deeply damaging.”
“I struggle with the idea of using my music to punish ordinary people for the actions of their government,” Cave said during the podcast. He further added, “It's clearly not working in Israel right now. In my opinion, it energizes the worst elements of the current government. They exploit the isolation and the 'whole world is against us' mentality. It serves them to advance their malicious agendas—while at the same time punishing ordinary fans." Cave also shared his deep appreciation and love for Jewish and Israeli communities, noting that his fascination with the Bible as a young person led him to travel to Israel to experience the land where it all happened.
Cave, who performed in Tel Aviv in 2017, stated at the time that the BDS movement was actually the impetus for his decision to play in Israel. He later returned to perform in Israel again in 2022.
In response to Cave’s criticism, Waters took to Instagram, posting a video where he mentioned that The Independent had covered Cave’s statements and had reached out to him for a comment. Waters read his response aloud in the video, addressing Cave directly: “Here is my response to the Aussie bloke. Nick Cave. Nick f*****g 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,” Waters said.
He continued, “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.”
* Arutz 7 contributed to this article.
