In a Facebook post, former Pink Floyd lead singer Roger Waters has called on singer Neil Young and actress Scarlet Johansson to support a cultural boycott against Israel.
In the post, Waters noted that he attempted to contact the two personally over the past few days but did not receive a reply from either one, so he took to the social network publicly.
Young is slated to perform in Israel this summer (July 17 at Tel Aviv's Hayarkon Park) and Johansson is a presenter for SodaStream, an Israeli drink manufacturing company.
Recently, Waters has become an ardent supporter of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
In his Facebook post, Waters stated that Young has always been his hero and as for Johansson -- he met her at a Cream reunion concert in New York, where she left a positive impression on him as a fighter for human rights. Waters went on to say that Johannson must have fooled him, and that he was wrong about her.
Most of the post was addressed to Johansson and it attempted to rebut her claim that Palestinian workers at the SodaStream factory in Mishor Adumim -- across the Green Line -- get equal rights. He signed off his note with the sentence, "Scarlet, you are undoubtedly cute, but if you think SodaStream builds bridges towards peace, you are undoubtedly not paying attention."
In an interview in CounterPunch magazine's December 2013 issue, Waters lashed out against Israel, artists who perform there, and even Israeli producer Shuki Weiss, who was in charge of Waters' 2006 concert in Israel. In the interview, Waters compared Israel to Nazi Germany, saying, "The parallels with what went on in the '30s in Germany are so crushingly obvious. ... The situation in Israel/ Palestine, with the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is unacceptable." During a concert tour in 2012, he displayed the Star of David alongside fascist symbols on a pig-shaped inflated balloon.
In 2006, Waters asked to change the location of his concert from Hayarkon Park to the town of Neve Shalom due to Palestinian pressure. At the time, Waters said he was "happy to perform before anyone who believes in peace. I do not discriminate against any of my fans."