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Last update - 12:22 03/06/2009
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters: Tear down the (West Bank) wall
By The Associated Press
Tags: Roger Waters, Pink Floyd 

Pink Floyd's former frontman Roger Waters said yesterday he'll take to the stage the minute Israel tears down its West Bank separation wall, just as he did in Berlin two decades ago when another wall came down.

Visiting a Palestinian refugee camp in the shadows of the towering concrete structure, the British rocker who co-wrote the iconic 1970s album The Wall said he hopes "this awful thing" is destroyed soon.

Waters, 65, said the West Bank wall has been on his mind since he first saw it up close in what he described as an eye-opening visit in 2006, following a concert in Israel. "People who haven't actually seen this, what's going on here, can't imagine the impression that it has on you, the sick, kind of churning feeling that you get in your very heart when you see this, how depressing it is," Waters said.
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Water's comments didn't sit very well with Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, who, quoting The Wall's most famous lyric, said we don't need no education from Waters.

Waters dismissed Israel's security argument, saying he believes the wall is not here to stop Israelis being blown up on buses. "If that was the sole reason, what's it doing in the occupied territories, surrounding settlements and cutting [Palestinian] farmers off from their olive trees and so on and so forth?" he said.

This is an exercise of colonialism, said Waters.

Regev said the barrier has sharply reduced Palestinian attacks, which have killed hundreds of Israelis since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000. "We don't need no education about suicide bombers coming into Israel and murdering innocent people, and how the security barrier has prevented that by more than 95 percent."

But Waters said he believes the barrier is indefensible. "When you stand in front of an edifice like this, whether it's here or outside a township in South Africa, or in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, or in Berlin in the 60s and 70s, it's something you know instinctively that this is wrong. It's a bad thing," he said. "It cannot survive forever."

If it does come down one day, he said, he'll perform at the site, just like he did in 1990, at a spot where the Berlin Wall had fallen just a year earlier. "In fact, I would insist on it," he said.

In the meantime, he's considering performing elsewhere in the West Bank, perhaps in the town of Ramallah, but has not made firm plans. On Monday, Waters visited a refugee camp in the northern town of Jenin to support efforts to reopen a local movie house that closed in 1987.

When he played in Israel in 2006, he was criticized by Palestinian activists trying to organize a cultural boycott of Israel. Waters said he now feels ambivalent about having performed in Israel.

Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, ruled out a reunion with his former band mates; their last joint performance was in 2005, for a Live 8 concert. "We had a great career as Pink Floyd. We all enjoyed it. We all worked together and enjoyed everything and it was brilliant. I think it's over," he said.
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  1.   If there were no terror or thefts there would be no wall 12:36  |  tobie 03/06/09
  2.   waters misery guts and anti Jewish 12:49  |  eddie 03/06/09
  3.   Hey Roger 13:08  |  EVH 03/06/09
  4.   Seeing is Believing 13:52  |  Marcos 03/06/09
  5.   you are depressed I am alive 13:59  |  Roland 03/06/09
  6.   Roger Waters is spot on 14:04  |  Ben Alofs 03/06/09
  7.   you ever been threatened by suicide bomber Roger? 14:07  |  tal 03/06/09
  8.   Next stop, Sri Lanka? 14:21  |  Noah 03/06/09
  9.   East Berlinners were not suicide bombing West Berlinners 14:23  |  Israel Citizen 03/06/09
  10.   was history delete from books in europe ? 14:50  |  calanit 03/06/09
  11.   Waters is Obama`s prep man, preparing the way before him 14:58  |  Revelation 13 03/06/09
  12.   Ben Alofs 15:09  |  Binn 03/06/09
  13.   The Law of unintended consequences 15:13  |  pt 03/06/09
  14.   Why wasn`t it built on the Green Line? 15:26  |  Miggy 03/06/09
  15.   Roger Waters: Useful idiot 15:35  |  Ben 03/06/09
  16.   ...says the ponce living in the lap of luxury 15:36  |  danny 03/06/09
  17.   Binn 15:43  |  zmogus 03/06/09
  18.   What does this idiot know about Warsaw Ghetto? 15:45  |  Israeli citizen 03/06/09
  19.   The Wall has worked 15:48  |  Mark Lincoln 03/06/09
  20.   Mark Regev and His Twitter 15:59  |  Yaakov Sullivan 03/06/09
  21.   Typical Naivety 16:41  |  Ben 03/06/09
  22.   Yaakov Sullivan on Mark Regev 16:48  |  Natallie Durson 03/06/09
  23.   But Germans are not terrorists! 16:53  |  Maria 03/06/09
  24.   This guy is comparing Germans from Palestinians! 16:58  |  Maria 03/06/09
  25.   Mark Lincoln, why should Israel define minimalist borders? 17:02  |  DavidAK 03/06/09
  26.   A "Tear down the wall" concert in the West Bank 17:04  |  Otto Heinze 03/06/09
  27.   Coloniolism and the WALL 17:06  |  Arnold 03/06/09
  28.   The Wall Has Saved Thousands Of Lives... 17:07  |  Yosemite 03/06/09
  29.   HEY, Roger Waters, GO EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE YOU COMMENT!!! 17:13  |  david 03/06/09
  30.   and Roger will guarantee that there will be no more suicide 17:14  |  Steve 03/06/09
  31.   judea samaria is ours,so we have to wall it off roger 17:24  |  mason 03/06/09
  32.   #31 mason you have it wrong 17:57  |  Labhras 03/06/09
  33.   what about all the british settelers in 2 major continents ? 18:20  |  calanit 03/06/09
  34.   # 25 david the walking contradiction 18:22  |  Axel 03/06/09
  35.   # 28 yosemite 18:24  |  Axel 03/06/09
  36.   Brits shouldn`t talk about Israeli occupation 19:41  |  N/A 03/06/09
  37.   will he play in Korea? 19:56  |  ben 03/06/09
  38.   Great wall of China?!?!? 19:57  |  Ben 03/06/09
  39.   Pink Floyd / Shmink Floyd? Just another stupid Goy 20:03  |  Shimshon HaGibor 03/06/09
  40.   dear Roger Waters 20:22  |  oz 03/06/09
  41.   Better to see a horrible wall than body parts 20:35  |  SDHD 03/06/09
  42.   Psychedelic rocker`s political opinions 20:48  |  RfaelMoshe 03/06/09
  43.   MONEY- IS IT A CRIME???? 21:01  |  Drew 03/06/09
  44.   "Sick Churning Feeling" Like looking at a bombing victim? 21:13  |  B`galil 03/06/09
  45.   whining at the truth 21:15  |  Noel 03/06/09
  46.   Mark Regev 21:38  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/06/09
  47.   ANOTHER Celebrity "expert".A headline & photo op. 22:12  |  PETER SM 03/06/09
  48.   Calanit #10 22:26  |  alan 03/06/09
  49.   We do need to get rid of the fence 22:27  |  Gee 03/06/09
  50.   ALOFFS First came the suicide bombers then the fence 22:35  |  PETER SM 03/06/09
  51.   Nutterlie on "spin meister"s 22:43  |  ZISD 03/06/09
  52.   Waters should 02:55  |  utagawa 04/06/09
  53.   and the Pope should leave his PopeMobile 05:10  |  David K 04/06/09
  54.   No fool like an old fool 05:47  |  Rham Kohen 04/06/09
  55.   Re: "Why wasn`t it built on the Green Line?" 07:11  |  Miron 04/06/09
  56.   I, a Kahanist, agree with Waters. 07:21  |  Ephraim 04/06/09
  57.   Roger is a naive lefty. 07:35  |  The Maintenance Man 04/06/09
  58.   yaacov sullivan 07:39  |  sam2b 04/06/09
  59.   Why wasn`t it built on the Green Line? 09:50  |  Tcherkessi 04/06/09
  60.   ok 04:09  |  ben 08/06/09
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