Roger Waters Show Draws Protestors At Bay Street Theater On Friday

Loud chants echoed in front of Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Friday night, as Israeli flags flapped in the wind, and Jews, who had trekked there from all over the South Fork, protested the performance of anti-Israel musician Roger Waters.

About 60 people stood in front of the theater holding a variety of signs that supported the State of Israel. They called the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, or BDS, a hate crime and asserted that it spreads lies about the country, often equating it with the Nazi regime. Other signs included ones that said Israel is not an apartheid country and that Mr. Waters encourages terror against the Jewish people.

The Pink-Floyd co-founder is a big proponent of BDS, an international initiative that aims to embargo Israeli exports to put economic and thus political pressure on the country. Last month, Mr. Waters called on rocker Jon Bon Jovi to cancel a concert he and other artists were set to perform in Tel Aviv, equating it to supporting violence against the Palestinian people.

Mr. Bon Jovi did not listen to Mr. Waters’s appeal and entertained in Israel anyway.

Mr. Waters performed at Bay Street as part of G.E. Smith’s “Portraits” concert series and sold out the 299-seat venue. According to Bay Street Executive Director Tracy Mitchell, people were even “begging” for tickets to the show and the waiting list was “a mile long.”

Nevertheless, two people did ask for refunds, an offer that the theater made last week after receiving word about the impending protest. The theater reiterated that it was committed to the right to free speech but also respected the rights of Jews who were offended by Mr. Waters’s performance.

“The audience was ecstatic about the show,” Ms. Mitchell said. “They loved it and it was a wonderful evening with great music.”

The picketers did garner some attention from the Friday night theater-goers, some of whom looked at fliers that were being handed out and expressed surprise about Mr. Waters’s views on Israel: some people did not know of his staunchly anti-Israel activism, they said.

Ruth Vered, a Sag Harbor resident who organized the protest and who was sporting a yellow Star of David on her collar, explained that the Jews in the area can no longer “lay low,” because that makes them look like they are silenced. She held a sign that said, “And we are silent … and then … silenced.”

Ms. Vered also explained that anti-Semitism is not just a vocal initiative, but that it actually kills Jews. “It brings knives into terrorists’ hands,” she said, adding, “This kind of incitement kills us.”

She repeatedly shouted “Shame on you!” at theater-goers who were waiting in line to get into the theater.

“This is just the beginning of what we are doing,” said Larry Zimmerman, an East Hampton resident, who was also handing out fliers that encouraged Freedom of Speech and said that BDS is exactly the opposite of encouraging free speech. “We want a worldwide campaign to protest Roger Waters wherever he is.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, issued a statement last week that also called on New Yorkers to boycott Mr. Waters’s performance as he does Israel, and give him an empty theater.

“We urge people who may have been unaware of his hate-filled boycott campaign and bought tickets for his performance, to vote with their feet and instead stand in solidarity—outside of the theater—with the innocent victims of terrorism in The Holy Land,” the release said.

Those who celebrate the Jewish Sabbath, which begins on Friday night at sundown, did not want to be left out of the pre-performance protest. They instead went to the theater at 3 p.m. to protest Mr. Waters.

Among the afternoon picketers was East Hampton Chabad co-director Goldie Baumgarten, who explained that the larger message that picketing brings is the most important. “Whether you picket or you don’t picket, letting people know now, bringing it to everyone’s attention and making a fuss about it is what counts,” she said.

“I am not going to let anybody get away with things like this anymore,” Ms. Vered said. “It is not just talk, it is killing people, it is giving the terrorists the upper hand, it gives them the permission to kill—these are not just words; these kinds of words kill.”