Group Criticizes Legislator For Trying To Cancel Roger Waters Concert

The National Coalition Against Censorship has criticized Nassau County Legislator Howard Kopel for his efforts to have Roger Waters's September show at Nassau Coliseum canceled because of Waters's stance on the BDS movement.

BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — specifically targets Israeli products and services. Earlier this year, Nassau County passed a law prohibiting the county from doing business with people or businesses involved in the BDS movement. Since the county owns the coliseum, opponents of Waters argue he shouldn't be allowed to perform.

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) called Kopel's efforts "ill-informed and dangerous," and said it was an effort to blacklist artists for their political opinions.

Anti-BDS laws have been cropping up across the country, and both the local and state level. New York proposed a similar law that failed to pass the legislature, but was signed into law as an executive order by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last June.

The effort to have Waters's concert canceled relies on a dangerously overbroad interpretation of this legislation, the NCAC says, according to which Waters should be denied a platform to perform his music because of his political views. If successful, it will set a precedent of using anti-BDS legislation to penalize performers or artists critical of Israel by denying them the possibility of showing their work in a government supported venue, the NCAC claims.

According to Newsday, the Nassau County attorney will take legal action against Nassau Events Center, the operator of the coliseum, if the performance is not canceled. In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League wrote an open letter to Waters criticizing his support of the BDS movement and saying his views on Israel "...are in fact colored by offensive and dangerous undercurrents of anti-Jewish sentiment."

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