Palestinian artists have appealed to Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd songwriter who wrote the band's final hit, Another Brick in the Wall, to call off a concert in Tel Aviv in June because it could be seen as legitimising the towering wall Israel is building through Jerusalem.
Groups such as the Palestinian Association for Contemporary Art and the League of Palestinian Artists have written to Waters expressing concern at his plans. Their letter said: "Palestinian as well as several international artists asked in shock: how can the artist whose name around the world was for many years associated with breaking walls of injustice be in any way complicit with the monstrosity of Israel's wall, declared illegal by the international court of justice?"
Last year, Waters was among several British artists who supported a War On Want campaign against the West Bank barrier. At the time, Waters said: "The poverty inflicted by the wall has been devastating for Palestinians. It has kept children from their schools, the sick from proper medical care and continues to destroy the Palestinian economy."
Yesterday, he said: "I have a lot of fans in Israel, many of whom are refuseniks. I would not rule out going to Israel because I disapprove of the foreign policy any more than I would refuse to play in the UK because I disapprove of Tony Blair's foreign policy."
