Mashina, David Broza open for Pink Floyd lead singer at Neveh Shalom.
By JPOST.COM STAFFRoger Waters 298.88(photo credit: AP)
As tens of thousands of people swarmed to Neveh Shalom on Thursday to attend Roger Waters' concert, heavy traffic jams were building up along the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway Route 1, as well as Route 3 on the way to Latroun.
Some 50,000 tickets, costing upwards of NIS 375 each, have been sold for the concert. Leading Israeli musicians David Broza and Micha Sheetrit, as well as the popular rock band Mashina performed ahead of the lead singer of Pink Floyd.
Waters chose the venue following protests by pro-Palestinian groups over his scheduled performance in Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park.
"I moved the concert to Neve Shalom as a gesture of solidarity with the voices of reason - Israelis and Palestinians seeking a non-violent path to a just peace between the peoples," commented Waters in a recent press release.
On Wednesday, Waters visited Bethlehem and spray-painted the words 'No Thought Control' on a section of the security fence.
"Maybe it will be harder to bring this one down," said Waters comparing the West Bank security fence to the Berlin wall in Germany, whose fall Waters vociferously campaigned for.
If the fence wasn't removed, "it will be hard for us to be human beings," he added.
In 2004, the singer lent his name to a campaign against the building of the security fence launched by War on Want, an organization that "fights poverty in developing countries in partnership and solidarity with people affected by globalization."
