Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Top Ten Pearl Jam Moments of 2014, #7

ED SPEAKS OUT ON ISRAEL


While Pearl Jam played Milton Keynes in July, aggressions between Israel and Palestine were heating up and the area was struggling to reach a cease fire.  Never one to shy away from a political viewpoint, Ed used his bully pulpit to weigh in.
“I swear to f---ing god, there are people out there who are looking for a reason to kill,” the famed American rocker said. “They’re looking for a reason to go across borders and take over land that doesn’t belong to them. They should get the f---out, and mind their own f---ing business.”

“We don’t want to give them our money. We don’t want to give them our taxes to drop bombs on children.”
Fans in Israel, who up until then had been very vocal in their wishes for a Pearl Jam concert struck out.  Eventually, his comments gained enough attention that Ed felt the need to address his fans further.
I don’t know how to reconcile the peaceful rainbow of flags we see each night at our concerts with the daily news of a dozen global conflicts and their horrific consequences. I don’t know how to process the feeling of guilt and complicity when I hear about the deaths of a civilian family from a U.S. drone strike. But I know that we can’t let the sadness turn into apathy. And I do know we are better off when we reach out to each other.

“I hope someday you’ll join us,…”
To further extend the olive branch, Ed eventually made his cover of John Lennon's Imagine available via iTunes will the proceeds benefitting Heartbeat.fman organization "that creates opportunities and spaces for young Israeli and Palenstinian musicians to work together, hear each other, and amplify their voices to influence the world around them."