ROGER WATERS wants Mideast wall down
03 June 2009Pink Floyd's former frontmanВ said Tuesday 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 actually 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 in an interview.
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.
Israel began building the barrier - a concrete wall in urban areas and fence with sensors and barbed wire along rural stretches - in 2002 following Palestinian bombings and shooting attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel insists it's a temporary security measure.В В
Waters dismissed Israel's security argument, saying he believes the wall "is not here to stop Israelis being blown up on buses."
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 per cent."
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.
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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