Roger Waters calls Nick Cave “embarrassing” amid Israel debate
Former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters has responded to Nick Cave after the Australian musician labelled him “embarrassing” and criticised his calls for a cultural boycott of Israel.
The heated exchange of words between Waters and Cave stems from 2017 when the latter performed in the Israeli capital, Tel Aviv, despite criticism from the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions movement, which encouraged artists to boycott playing Israel due to the ongoing conflict with Palestine. Waters and Brian Eno were among the more notable names to also condemn Cave’s decision.
A year after the controversial show in Israel, Cave defended the performance in his newsletter, the Red Hand Files. He stated his belief that “the cultural boycott of Israel is cowardly and shameful”. Now, six years later, the Australian musician has doubled down on his perspective despite the escalation in conflict between Israel and Palestine since the Hamas attacks on October 7th.
In a recent podcast interview with Reason, Cave re-affirmed his position on the subject of cultural boycotts, stating, “I just feel – and I’m no friend of the government of Israel – but I just feel on some level that I find it difficult to come to terms with using my music in order to punish ordinary people because of the acts of their government. It sort of comes down to that, to some degree.”
Cave then stated his view on cultural boycotts didn’t only apply to Israel, adding, “I understand that this is a controversial thing to say, I just don’t agree with a cultural boycott, in general.”
Waters has now hit back at Cave’s comments in a new video uploaded to social media. He began by referring to Cave as “the Aussie bloke” before saying, “Nick Cave. Nick fucking Cave”.
Waters continued: “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 passionately 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.”
The Pink Floyd founder then spoke about himself in third person and urged Cave to “follow the example” he has set along with Eno. He added: “Nick, pay attention. Nick, every precious drop of empathy, every loving hand reached out, every voice raised in harmony counts. Roger Waters and Brian Eno are our brothers. Now, Nick, I must find somewhere to bury these bits of my child.”
Waters continued by reading out ‘The Road To Damascus’, which he initially wrote after Cave called him “cowardly” at a press conference after performing in Tel Aviv in 2017. He signed off the message by saying, “Fuck you, Nick fucking Cave, you fucking prick.”
More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in response to the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas, which cost over 1,100 Israeli lives. Additionally, over two million people have been displaced from their homes, with Gaza turned to rubble.
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