(from my e-mail)
Pink Floyd star Roger Waters is to move his concert to an Israeli “peace village”. The new venue is Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam, a community dedicated to the peaceful co-existence of different faiths and races.
Waters was initially due to play Hayarkon Park outside Tel Aviv in June, but changed his plans after discussions with Palestinian artists and campaigners, as well as Israeli refuseniks, who called on Waters to make a political stand against the occupation of Palestine.
Roger Waters said: “The suffering endured by the Palestinian people during the Israeli occupation of the last 40 years is unimaginable to us living in the west and I support them in their struggle to be free. I have moved the concert to Neve Shalom/Wahat al Salam as a gesture of solidarity with those voices of reason, both Palestinian and Israeli, that seek a non-violent route to a just peace”.
“A few weeks ago I revisited Martin Scorsese’s film of the last concert of The Band and was moved to write some lines which seem appropriate here”.
The Last Waltz
I just want that thing
When voices join in harmony
And in that fleeting moment,
Meaning coalesces on the ear,
All dark, dissolving, clouds the alleyways no more
And fresh bread scent of home pervades the air
No sandal soles
In dust of broken homes
Nor callused toes peep bloody from the garment hem,
And all the big parades
And shock and awe
And swagger on the carrier decks and medals
Jangle helpless in the face of what is fair
I just want that thing
When friends draw in, some living some begone,
Some brittle, none forgotten
All beloved everyone.
Then dash the glass into the fire
Then well up unashamed my heart
Beyond the reach of fear
Of faith, blind, bigoted and drear
And then across the great divide
Rise men and women unafraid
To dash in loss their bracelets at the wall,
And hearing them
Hope holds me in its thrall.
I just want that thing
When empathy prevails
When man evolves beyond the crass
And reason comes of age
When dogma, cant, and witchcraft
All are banished to the past
When voices join in harmony at last.