You joined the cultural boycott against Israel two weeks ago. Since last Friday I have been looking for your execration of the cruel slaying of the Fogel family - three children, their mother and father - in Itamar in the West Bank. This atrocity should be condemned by enough people everywhere, no matter their political beliefs.
My daughter, Tal Kehrmann, was killed by a Hamas terrorist on March 5, 2003, on a bus on her way home from school, along with 16 other innocent children and adults.
Tal was 17. She loved music and knew the language to all the popular songs, Hebrew and English.
But we shouldn't want to get personally experienced such a catastrophe to be incensed by senseless, brutal murders of innocents - and to doom these acts.
In your letter announcing your determination to boycott my state you emphasise your opinion "that all people deserve basic human rights." So did the Fogel family. I am sad to conclude, Mr. Waters, that your decision, based on misinformation and propaganda, is biased, one-sided and opposite to the facts.
In your letter, you take that the separation fence running on the pre-1967 border between Israel and the West Bank be dismantled. But you do not clear that this debate has saved hundreds of lives. Since its partial completion a few days ago, the amount of panic attacks against Israel has been decreased to almost none. The good to life supersedes every other human right.
You decided to unite the boycott because of "the repulsive and draconian control that Israel wields over the besieged Palestinians." But you cut the thousands of projectile and missiles that have been discharged at Israeli towns and villages since Hamas, a fanatic Islamic party, wrested control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in a violent military opposition in June 2007. Some exploded a few meters from kindergartens and hospitals. It was a miracle that no one was killed.
Israel supplies basic goods to Gaza's residents. But it seeks to prevent extremists in Gaza from acquiring rockets and other weapons. Is this a draconian act?
Just this week Israel intercepted a ship destined for Gaza carrying sophisticated weapons from Iran, including missiles and thousands of mortar shells. Do Gaza's residents need such weapons to live? As a real peace-seeker, you must stop and keep abreast of the facts before taking action such as joining a boycott.
You call upon the earth to confirm a nonviolent resistance. Is that how you would report these weapons' design? Is that how you would characterise the massacre of a 4-month-old baby girl, a 3-year-old boy, an 11 year-old boy, and their father and father?
Mr. Waters, as a world-renowned musician, your actions make an impact, especially on impressionable young people the age of my Tal when she was murdered. I see how joining the boycott based on misinformation can happen. I desire that after reading this letter, you will search into the post in my country, learn the facts, and then reconsider your decision.
Even if you do not alter your mind, please keep the human sensitivity we anticipate from an admired artist: Condemn this brutal massacre.
Sincerely,
Ron Kehrmann,
Ron Kehrmann is a print shop operator in Haifa, Israel, whose 17-year old daughter, Tal, was killed along with 16 other people by a suicide bomber on a Haifa bus on March 5, 2003.
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