Roger Waters claims Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are “evil beyond all imagination”
Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has weighed in on the upcoming US election, which is set to take place on November 5th. The musician has urged fans not to vote for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, or her Republican rival, Donald Trump, labelling them “evil beyond all imagination” due to their respective stances on the ongoing actions carried out by Israel on the Palestinian people.
This most recent conflict between Israel and ostensibly Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been ongoing in the Gaza Strip and Israel since October 7th, 2023. The war, which has now spread to Lebanon and Iran, began when Hamas-affiliated militant groups launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel that day. During the attack, 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed, including 815 civilians. It included the horrific massacre at the Nova music festival.
Since that fateful day, over 48,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority in the Gaza Strip; meanwhile, Israel has lost under 2,000 citizens, and the world continues to protest its actions. The International Court of Justice is reviewing a case accusing the country of committing genocide in Gaza.
Waters, a longtime staunch defender of the Palestinian people, has commented on the matter several times over the past year, including his televised clash with Piers Morgan, when he was called the “world’s dumbest rock star”. The criticism he’s attracted hasn’t stopped him, though, and on October 28th, he took to X to call out Harris and Trump for their perspectives on what’s unfolding in the Middle East.
Ahead of the election on November 5th, he instructed his followers not to vote for either primary candidates as “they both support murdering children”. He added: “They are both evil beyond all imagination, there is no lesser evil.”
Waters said that instead, people should vote for independents such as Dr Jill Stein, Butch Ware, Cornel West, Melina Abdullah, or Socialist Equality candidate Joseph Kishore and his running partner Jerry White.
Harris has attracted much condemnation from the left wing due to her stance. Notably, the US is the historical primary supporter of Israel, and she’s maintained that the country has the right to defend itself but has also acknowledged the suffering of the Palestinians. She’s said there should be a two-state solution but has not outlined how this could be achieved.
Trump has also been criticised for his take on the issue. Not only has he said that the attacks on October 7th, 2023, wouldn’t have happened if he was President, but he’s criticised Israel’s handling of the conflict, saying it “has to do a better job of public relations”.
When President Trump came under fire for ending decades of US opposition to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and then the ensuing Biden administration reversed this. Asked whether he’d support an independent Palestinian state during a June election debate, he replied: “I’d have to see.”
What else has Roger Waters said about Israel’s actions?
It’s not only Piers Morgan that Waters has clashed with over the matter. After the influential Australian musician Nick Cave labelled him “embarrassing” and criticised his calls for a cultural boycott of Israel, the former Pink Floyd leader responded with his own harsh words.
Waters said: “The Palestinian mother/father carrying the bits of her or his dead child back along the bitter road to nowhere in a plastic bag pauses on the roadside to scratch a message in the rubble. Nick, here’s the message. Dear Nick Cave, we, the Indigenous people of Palestine, in this agony, implore you, please don’t cross the BDS picket line to sing for your supper in Israel.”
The bassist then added: “It’s not complicated, Nick. It’s not complicated. That act — singing for your supper in Israel, Nick — that act serves to whitewash the 75-year-old Zionist Israeli occupation, land theft, apartheid, and genocide of our people, Nick.”
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