The Electronic Intifada reports:
Roger Waters, British rock legend and co founder of the group Pink Floyd, visiting Israel’s separation wall surrounding the West Bank town of Bethlehem on June 21, 2006. Waters wrote slogans as “Tear down the wall” in a protest against it and the affect it has on the Palestinian population.
Waters’ is a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel.
The World Social Forum Free Palestine will take place in November 2012 in Porto Alegre.
“The object will be to create an international gathering there,” said Waters, “that will encourage the basic human instinct in all men and women of good faith to unite in support of the Palestinian people in their struggle for self determination.”
Waters visited Palestine in 2006 and painted graffiti on Israel’s apartheid wall in the occupied West Bank.
The visit, and Waters’ support for BDS, came after Palestinians appealed to Waters to cancel a concert in Tel Aviv, an appeal the artist heeded.
Since that time, Waters observed in his statement, “All over the world, our movement is growing.”
Full statement by Roger Waters
Rio de Janeiro Wednesday 28th March 2012
Since visiting Israel and the occupied territories in 2006, I have been part of an international movement to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
I am honored to have been asked by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, to announce an initiative, to hold the World Social Forum Free Palestine in Porto Alegre, Brazil in November of this year, in cooperation with the Brazilian social movement and international civil society networks.
The object will be to create an international gathering there, that will encourage the basic human instinct in all men and women of good faith to unite in support of the Palestinian people in their struggle for self determination.
All over the world, our movement is growing.
Encouraged by events like the one coming here to Brazil, our voice will grow.
We will continue our call for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, for the tearing down of The Walls of colonization and apartheid, for the creation of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, for the granting of full and equal rights to the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel and for promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as required by the Geneva convention, as stipulated in UN resolution 194, in 1949 and as restated by the International Court of Justice on the 9th of July 2004.
I find myself greatly encouraged by the growth of this movement in Israel, particularly among young Jewish Israelis, not least ‘Boycott From Within,’ With whom I am in contact.
We stand with you.
Events in Israel and the occupied territories are not widely or accurately reported in the west. The coming World Social Forum Free Palestine in Porto Alegre will help to break down The Walls of misinformation and complicity.
I urge people of conscience to support this forum and help make it a turning point in the international solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The truth will set us free
In Solidarity,
Roger Waters
