In protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters released a video on Monday showing him reciting a poem by the late Mahmoud Darwish, widely considered to be the Palestinians' national poet.
As part of his prolific pro-Palestinian political activism against Israel, Waters produced the video, titled "Supremacy," in collaboration with Le Trio Joubran, a band of three brothers who identify as Palestinian from the northern Israeli city of Nazareth.
In the video, Waters recites Darwish's poem, "The Red Indian's Penultimate Speech to the White Man," accompanied by the band.
"On the surface, it [the poem] narrates the last speech of the Native American to the White Man, but it speaks also to Darwish's beloved Palestine and its indigenous people, in fact to all victims of settler colonialism everywhere, always," Waters posted on Facebook.
The recording was made in Paris and London shortly after Trump's declaration in December.
According to Le Joubran Trio, Trump's decision puts the Palestinians in danger of being edged out of Jerusalem.
The poem and the video were released to mark 70 years since the Palestinian "Nakba" ("Catastrophe"), the term used by Palestinians and their supporters to describe the events surrounding the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
As expected, the poem elicited responses both in favor of and against Waters' activism. The British singer is one of the most recognizable faces in the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. In recent years, he has pressured various artists not to perform in Israel.
While Waters has enjoyed some success in his campaign to keep artists from performing in Israel on political grounds, many artists have actually made a point of traveling to Israel to perform in defiance of his pressure. Some have lambasted the singer, arguing that calling for boycotts is no solution.
Waters, 74, was the bass player and lead singer of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, until he left the band in the 1980s.
The Nazareth band says it has "been touring the world with our ouds [lute-like instruments] for the past 15 years."
