Na początku tygodnia przypadało żydowskie święto Jom Kippur, które zawsze gromadzi dziesiątki tysięcy Żydów pod Ścianą Płaczu na modlitwie o przebaczenie. Dopiero w ostatnich latach ONZ również zaczęła szanować ten dzień i odwołuje szczyty Zgromadzenia Ogólnego w tym dniu. Foto: Dan Balilty/AP/TT

Wielki Dzień Pojednania dotyczy także ONZ

Tomas Sandell

Jeszcze w 2016 roku, po 67 latach członkostwa Izraela, Zgromadzenie Ogólne ONZ uznało pierwsze żydowskie święto religijne za święto oficjalne, kiedy siedziba główna jest zamknięta i unika się ważnych spotkań. Do tego czasu izraelscy dyplomaci i żydowscy urzędnicy byli zmuszeni zrezygnować z wielu strategicznie ważnych spotkań podczas szczytu ONZ w Nowym Jorku, który co roku zbiega się z żydowskim Nowym Rokiem, Rosz HaSzana, i Wielkim Dniem Pojednania, Jom Kipppur.

Tym, którzy nie znają świąt żydowskich, mogło wydawać się absurdalne i wręcz niegrzeczne, że izraelskie miejsca w Zgromadzeniu Ogólnym ONZ były puste, kiedy na przykład przemawiał przywódca delegacji palestyńskiej.

Uznanie Jom Kippur za święto religijne usankcjonowane przez ONZ, mające taki sam status jak chrześcijańskie Boże Narodzenie i Wielkanoc, było późną korektą strukturalnej dyskryminacji, jakiej państwo żydowskie było poddawane od czasu jego przyjęcia do grona członków w 1949 r. Przez kilka lat dziesięcioleci, aż do roku 1990, jednak Izrael nie mógł w pełni skorzystać ze swojego członkostwa, ponieważ kraj ten nie należał do żadnej grupy regionalnej. System ONZ opiera się na członkostwie w grupach regionalnych, które między sobą kontrolują władzę w ramach światowej organizacji.

W wyraźnym kontraście z Kartą ONZ nakazującą równe traktowanie wszystkich państw członkowskich, państwo żydowskie zmuszone było żyć we własnym „getcie” aż do roku 2000, kiedy to dzięki naciskom amerykańskim kraj ten został ostatecznie przyjęty jako członek tzw. grupa WEOG, czyli Europa Zachodnia i inne kraje.

Nie tylko to. Wielu może pamiętać, jak żydowski ruch na rzecz samostanowienia, syjonizm, został uznany w 1975 r. za rasistowską fabrykację, antysemicki mit, który kilka lat później został powtórzony podczas tak zwanej konferencji w Durbanie w 2001 r.

Jak dotąd większość przyjaciół Izraela rozpoznaje obraz pozycji Izraela w systemie ONZ. Ale jest też inny obraz. Strukturalna dyskryminacja Izraela przez ONZ oznacza, że ​​nadal – 75 lat po odrodzeniu kraju – ONZ finansuje szereg organów, które podtrzymują mit o powstaniu Izraela w 1948 r. jako „wielkiej katastrofie”, czyli Nakba po arabsku. Nie ma jednak ani jednego organu, który dbałby o interesy Żydów.

Ale w ostatnich latach nastąpiła zmiana.

Decyzja ONZ o wstrzymaniu dorocznego szczytu Zgromadzenia Ogólnego podczas święta Jom Kippur jest istotna z kilku powodów. W ten sposób szacunek dla kultury żydowskiej i pozycji Izraela jest powoli, ale skutecznie wzmacniany w systemie ONZ. W ostatnich latach Sekretarz Generalny ONZ brał udział w oficjalnym przyjęciu żydowskiego Nowego Roku w formie ceremonii Tashlich. Rytuał nawiązujący do żydowskiego Nowego Roku wskazuje na potrzebę rachunku sumienia, pokuty i przebaczenia przed nowym rokiem.

W ostatnich latach światło dzienne w systemie ONZ ujrzała także pierwsza oficjalna grupa interesu zajmująca się kulturą żydowską, tzw. Grupa Przyjaciół. Kiedy dwa lata temu została ona wprowadzona, było obecnych łącznie czterdzieści narodów, a dziesięć państw członkowskich skorzystało z okazji i wygłosiło własne oświadczenia, podkreślając znaczenie kultury żydowskiej w ich własnych ojczyznach i czego możemy się nauczyć z żydowskich świąt.

Podejście jest wyjątkowe. Kultura żydowska nie dotyczy tylko państwa Izrael – około 120 krajów na całym świecie ma doświadczenia związane z własną populacją żydowską. We wszystkich przypadkach doświadczenia są pozytywne! Niezależnie od tego, czy jest to Maroko, Meksyk czy Indie, kraje te są dumne ze swojej mniejszości żydowskiej, swojej kultury i tego, w jaki sposób przyczyniła się ona do dobrobytu narodu.

W ten sposób wszystkie te państwa członkowskie mogą poczuć dumę z własnej mniejszości żydowskiej, a co za tym idzie, rośnie także zrozumienie potrzeby posiadania własnego państwa żydowskiego obok Żydów, którzy nadal żyją w diasporze. Dzięki tej dyplomacji kulturalnej Izrael i naród żydowski zyskują nowych przyjaciół w całym systemie ONZ.

Jeśli pierwsze pięćdziesiąt lat członkostwa Izraela w ONZ spędził w poczekalni ONZ, kraj wszedł teraz do wspaniałego forum ONZ.

Roger Waters sang ‘f***ing Jew’ song, claims former producer

DAVID ROSE

Documentary makes explosive new allegations about the former Pink Floyd frontman

Roger Waters: bad people can make great art (Alamy)

Roger Waters delivered an impromptu ditty that referred to his Jewish agent as a “f***ing Jew”, the rock star’s ex-producer has claimed in an explosive new documentary about the former Pink Floyd frontman.   

The film also claims Waters once referred disparagingly to a vegetarian restaurant meal as “Jew food” and alleges he said that European Jews could not trace their origins to ancient Israel, but were “just white men like me with beards”.

The documentary, The Dark Side of Roger Waters, which was made by Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) and presented by the veteran BBC investigative journalist John Ware, also claims Waters suggested in an email that the giant inflatable pig that floats above the audience at his shows should be adorned not only with a Star of David but the phrases “follow the money” and “dirty kyke [sic]”.

Most of the key allegations about Waters in the documentary are made by two music professionals who are well-known in their own right and who worked closely with the rock star over many years.

Ezrin being interviewed in the documentary

Bob Ezrin, who is Jewish and Waters’s former producer, is a music business legend who has also worked with artists including Alice Cooper, KISS and Taylor Swift. The other key interviewee is Jewish saxophonist Norbert Stachel, who spent years touring the world as a member of Waters’ band.

Norbert Stachel as seen in the CAA film

As well as levelling allegations in the film about Waters, both men pay tribute to his virtues and talent. According to Ezrin, Waters is “a brilliant songwriter, a brilliant poet”, who can be “exquisitely sensitive”, “tender” and “sweet”. Stachel admits that he never challenged what he regarded as Water’s unacceptable statements, “because I wanted his money and I wanted his gig”.

However, Ezrin says that Waters is also a “bully” and someone who “finds the weak spot in others to make themselves more powerful”. He adds that although “part of me still loves him, part of me is very upset with him for positions that he’s taking in the public that affect me as a Jew. And affect my people and my family and my friends and I feel that’s why I have to do this interview and speak about it publicly.”

Roger Waters performs in New York City (Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)

Ezrin also says that in his view, Waters genuinely does not see himself as an antisemite and believes he is a strident campaigner against racism and fascism. Waters has always denied he is antisemitic, saying that the allegation arises from his opposition to Israel’s government, which “sees me as existentialist threat to their settler-colonialist racist apartheid regime”.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Roger Waters has repeatedly used his enormous platform to bait Jews, but he always claims that he is not antisemitic. We believed that there was further evidence out there, and the release of The Dark Side of Roger Waters now puts the evidence we obtained in the hands of the public.

“Is Roger Waters an antisemite? Now people can make up their own minds.”

Ezrin, who co-produced Pink Floyd’s global hit album The Wall, claims in the film he was present when Waters sang an antisemitic ditty about his former agent, the late Bryan Morrison, who was Jewish: “I can’t remember the exact circumstance… but the last line of the couplet was “…’cos Morry is a f****ing Jew’.”

However, Ezrin adds, “I’m embarrassed to say that I was so shocked that I didn’t say anything.” Because the incident took place “early on in the relationship”, he says, he “kind of chalked it up to just stupidity on his part and a kind of nascent antisemitism that existed in England and many places around the world”.

The film, which was funded by CAA and broadcast on the anti-racism group’s website, also reveals emails allegedly written by Waters in 2010 about the famous giant pig that floats above the audience during gigs.

In one, Waters apparently suggested the pig should be decorated with crosses, Stars of David, dollar signs and “epithets” such as “dirty kyke”, “follow the money” and “scum”. Ezrin says that, in his view, the pig became a “rallying cry” for antisemites in the audience. The film reports that after the band’s Jewish lighting director protested, the phrase “dirty kyke” was abandoned, although Waters’s pig did bear the Star of David at concerts until 2013.

It is also claimed that Waters went on to suggest in a further email that audiences should be showered with confetti shaped in what he called “political and religious symbols”, including a Star of David, a Nazi swastika and a dollar sign, which should be “dropped like bombs” from the ceiling. In the end, the swastika was not used — but both dollar-sign and Star of David-shaped confetti was dropped onto crowds.

Touring this year, Waters juxtaposed images of Anne Frank, who was murdered in the Holocaust, with the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was accidentally shot by an Israeli soldier while covering clashes in the West Bank last year. One of the most bizarre alleged incidents described by Stachel took place when he and Waters dined at a Lebanese restaurant, and the waiters brought a succession of vegetarian dishes.

According to Stachel, Waters pushed a dish with his arm and berated the waiter, saying: “That’s it! That’s it! Where’s the meat? Where’s the meat? What’s with this? This is Jew food! What’s with the Jew food! Take away the Jew food!”

Stachel also claims that Waters repeatedly asked him probing questions about his Jewish heritage, on one occasion putting on an accent and pretending to be his Jewish grandmother.

Once, Stachel says, he overheard an argument Waters had with a former girlfriend on the way to a venue, in which the singer reportedly said that Jews were not a race, but “white European men that grow beards and they practise the religion Judaism but they’re no different than me they have no difference in their background or their history or their culture or anything”.

Stachel says he was warned not to protest over Waters’s alleged antisemitism by another Jewish member of his entourage, who told him: “If you want to keep this job, let me give you some advice. Just shut up about the Jewish stuff and keep it to yourself… don’t make a fuss.”

Asked whether Waters was an antisemite, Ezrin says: “As a person with a powerful public platform he has a responsibility to understand that what he does affects other people. And so he may not be one but he walks like one, he quacks one, he swims like one, so you know, from my point of view he’s functionally a duck.” Waters, Ezrin adds, “does things and says things that Jewish people take as an attack against us as a group as an ethnic group.”

Last weekend, Waters claimed that he had been barred from Pennsylvania University, where he was to speak at a Palestinian literary festival. In a video, he blamed the campus newspaper for publishing an article “all about how I might be an antisemite”.

This, he said, was a “diversionary tactic”, adding: “If they can get you thinking and talking about antisemitism then you won’t be thinking about the fact that Palestinians have no human rights in the occupied territories.

“That is what we should be talking about in the Daily Pennsylvanian, not whether Roger Waters is an antisemite or not. And by the way, he’s not… Shall I tell you how I know? I am Roger Waters and this is my heart, and it doesn’t have even the slightest flicker of antisemitism in it, anywhere.”

A university spokesman later said it was because of last-minute logistical and security concerns.

Accused on social media of being antisemitic “to his rotten core” by Polly Samson, the wife of his former bandmate Dave Gilmour, Waters retaliated on stage earlier this year, saying: “All I have to say about Polly Samson is: imagine waking up to that every morning!” This, Ezrin says, was “just incendiary… sexist [and] provocative”.

Last week, the JC emailed detailed questions to Waters, asking him to respond to the film’s allegations, including all those described above. He has not replied. Requests for comment from the programme-makers also went unanswered, we understand.

‘Take Away This Jew Food!’ New Documentary Exposes Roger Waters’ Antisemitic Barbs

Ben Cohen

Roger Waters called Pink Floyd agent a ‘f***ing Jew’, producer claims

Former Pink Floyd vocalist Roger Waters’ stringent denials that he is personally antisemitic suffered a major blow on Thursday with the release of a new documentary in which fellow musicians detailed his long record of anti-Jewish barbs.

Fronted by the British investigative journalist John Ware and produced by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a UK-based advocacy organization, the film — titled “The Dark Side of Roger Waters” — features extensive interviews with legendary producer Bob Ezrin and saxophonist Norbert Statchel, both of whom are Jewish, in which they recalled several occasions when Waters uttered antisemitic remarks. A vocal supporter of the so-called “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” (BDS) movement targeting the State of Israel who has depicted the media and music industries as slavishly following “Zionist” imperatives, Waters has always taken offense at the suggestion that his stridently anti-Zionist views are rooted in a personal antipathy towards Jews.

Ezrin — the producer of Pink Floyd’s classic 1979 album “The Wall” who has worked with artists from Alice Cooper to Taylor Swift — offered a nuanced view of Waters’ psyche, depicting him as an intelligent person and highly gifted musician with strongly narcissistic tendencies.

“Not only were Roger and I partners in the music, we were also friends,” Ezrin said with a wry smile. “Roger’s a really complicated guy. He is exquisitely sensitive and insensitive at the same time.”

Among the several anecdotes related by Ezrin was one concerning an impromptu song that Waters wrote about Bryan Morrison, Pink Floyd’s Jewish agent. “I can’t remember the exact circumstance, but something like, you know … the last line of the couplet was ‘cos Morrie is a f–king Jew,’” Ezrin said. “It was my first inclination that there may be some antisemitism under the surface.”

Asked how he responded, Ezrin replied, “You know, I’m embarrassed to say that I was so shocked, I didn’t say anything.” He added that the remark had been made early on in their relationship. “I chalked it up to stupidity on his part and also what I understood to be a kind of nascent antisemitism that existed in England and many places around the world,” said Ezrin.

Statchel meanwhile outlined his ordeal as a saxophonist performing with Waters’ backing band on tour, emphasizing that challenging the singer over his antisemitic comments would have cost him his job.

Statchel said that when he told Waters that his family were Ashkenazi Jews and that most of his father’s relatives had been murdered during the Holocaust, the singer offered to introduce him to “your dead grandmother,” launching into a hackneyed imitation of how he imagined a Polish Jewish woman might speak.

“He put on an impression of an old hag,” Statchel remembered. “It was kind of like a slapstick, insulting way that someone would think a person of no education and low class, and maybe not real smart, would speak.”

On another occasion, Statchel joined Waters and other band members for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. Waters and other members of the party became angry when they realized that all the dishes carried out by the wait staff were vegetarian, and contained no meat. “Finally the 12th or 13th dish came out, and the waiter seemed intimidated already by the loudness, and the personalities, and the arrogance,” he said. “Roger kind of pushes it with his arm, and he goes, ‘That’s it! Where’s the meat? This is Jew food, what’s with this Jew food? Take away the Jew food!’”

The film also revealed a series of emails that Waters sent to colleagues producing his live show, proposing in one communication that the inflatable flying pig which is a prominent feature of his concerts be embossed with the words “dirty k-ke” — a particularly offensive antisemitic slur. It also pointed to Waters’ most recent tour in which he mounted a graphic display that compared the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, allegedly by an Israeli soldier, with the fate of Anne Frank, the young Jewish girl who perished during the Holocaust and whose wartime diary of life in hiding in Amsterdam was published posthumously.

“Do I think he considers himself to be an antisemite? I’ll bet you dollars for doughnuts he does not and he will be the first person to say: ‘I’m not anti anything, I am in favor of everyone,’” Ezrin observed. “But as a person with a powerful public platform, he has a responsibility to understand that what he does affects other people, and so he may not be one, but he walks like one, he quacks like one, he swims like one, so from my point of view he’s functionally a duck.”

The documentary’s release coincides with the latest scandal involving Waters, who claimed he was prevented from speaking at a pro-Palestinian event at the University of Pennsylvania last weekend. The university authorities countered that their understanding was that Waters would appear virtually, and that security arrangements to accommodate his physical presence had not been made.

Earlier this year, a five-city tour by Waters in Germany was met with protests and demands for the cancellation of the concerts.

“A valuable asset such as freedom of expression and freedom of art must never be misused as a license for antisemitism,” Senator Joe Chialo of the center-right CDU Party in Berlin declared prior to Waters’ concert in the German capital in May. Referring to the Star of David that appeared on the inflatable pig used by the singer, Chialo added: “These actions — like the BDS campaign he is associated with — are nothing but antisemitic.”