Pink Floyd’s Waters still considers boycott against Israel

(JTA) — Pink Floyd guitarist Roger Waters said he was still considering whether to call on musicians to boycott Israel.

“I am considering my position,” Waters said in a taped interview published online Monday by The Huffington Post. “The letter asking my fellow musicians to boycott Israel has never appeared. I’m thinking it all through extremely carefully … because I care more about the outcome, because I care about the people involved, than I do about the moment.”

Waters last month likened Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to South Africa’s apartheid policy segregating blacks and whites that was the target of an international boycott.

Waters said he wants to avoid “some kind of dramatic moment that could very easily blow up and mean that I would, in the long term, have less effect on the outcome.”

Other prominent musicians who have spoken out against Israel and cancelled performances there in recent years include Elvis Costello, Santana and the late Gil Scott-Heron. Waters was cited as a major influence on Stevie Wonder cancelling a scheduled performance at a Friends of the IDF fundraiser concert last summer in Los Angeles.

“Assuming that you’re rational and that you care about other human beings, the goal strategically should be a solution of the Palestinian refugee problem, an end to the occupation, security and the right to lead a decent life for all the citizens of Israel,” Waters said.