Pro-Israel Spanish organization Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) has criticized anti-Israel musician Roger Waters who will be touring Europe in the next few weeks and performing in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as in other European cities.
The Pink Floyd bassist is a leading proponent of the BDS movement against Israel.
"We believe that no public venue should offer its space, and no reputable company should associate itself to the promotion of hatred and antisemitic libels that are involved in Waters’ performances," Angel Mas, president of ACOM, told The Jerusalem Post in a statement on Tuesday.
"We believe that no public venue should offer its space, and no reputable company should associate itself to the promotion of hatred and antisemitic libels that are involved in Water’s performances."
Angel Mas
"This is not an attack on freedom of speech or artistic expression. It would be unthinkable that any other equivalent display of defamation targeting specific national, racial or religious minorities would be permitted in our country," Mas said.
He added that ACOM "will appeal the moral compass of those involved and to our rule of law that in Spain prevent these behaviors."
According to an official ticket site for the tour, Waters will perform in Barcelona on March 21 and in Madrid on March 23 and 24.
ACOM is a Spanish, non-denominational and independent organization that strengthens the relationship between Spain and Israel through joint work with the government, political parties and civil society. "We are inspired by universal values: the defense of Human Rights, democratic societies, civil liberties and the rule of law," their official website states.
Roger Waters: “One of the world’s most well-known antisemites”
On Monday it was reported that Waters has been blocked from performing in Frankfurt after the city called him “one of the world’s most well-known antisemites.”
Waters had been scheduled to perform May 28 at Frankfurt’s Festhalle, which during the Holocaust was the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews to their deaths just after Kristallnacht.
In October, Waters said that "the Israelis seem now to have a policy of ... murdering so many of them that they are absolutely trying to create another intifada. So they can make it an armed conflict...so they can just kill them all," he said, adding that Israel is provoking the Palestinians into an armed conflict in order to manufacture an excuse to destroy them.
The Jewish Community of Oporto alao published a statement on Tuesday regarding the upcoming concerts of Waters in Lisbon. They said that they "regret the presence in Portugal of Roger Waters," and invited him to visit the City's Holocaust Museum.
"The Directorate of the Jewish Community of Oporto regrets the presence in Portugal of Roger Waters and the silence of the news media on the ideology of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) that he espouses," the community statement said.
"If the singer's tour in Portugal, scheduled for March 17 and 18, is not suspended, he is invited to visit the Oporto Holocaust Museum, which dedicates a space to the perverse ideology of BDS," the Oporto Jewish community stated.
They added that "the persecution of Jews over millennia, based on ideas religion, culture, race, money and success, has been converted in the modern period to the despicable hatred of the State of Israel. This continues to attract supporters from all segments of society.
"Waters knows that he has a big influence on his fans and that his ideas about Israel can arm crowds that will fire shots tomorrow.
"The silence in the West regarding BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions], which advocates the economic, political, academic and cultural isolation of the State of Israel, goes hand in hand with Soviet antisemitism dedicated to destroying all truly relevant Jewish realities in the Diaspora."
JTA contributed to this report.