The following statement was released by Morton A. Klein, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and Mark Levenson, Esq., Chair:

The Zionist Organization of America greatly appreciates that, after receiving detailed letters of complaint from ZOA and B’nai B’rith, leaders of Major League Baseball (MLB) have announced that it will no longer promote the concert tour of infamous anti-Israel Jew-hater, performer Roger Waters, after MLB was apprised of Waters’ support for boycotting the Jewish state, promoting ugly lies against the Jewish State, and absurdly claiming there is no country worse than Israel. 

ZOA and B’nai B’rith International separately wrote to MLB officials after learning that the league had promoted early ticket sales for Waters’ American tour.

In our letter to MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr., we cited numerous examples of Waters’ outrageous lies in his efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel and Jews — including Waters’ equating the many rights and benefits that Arab citizens enjoy in Israel to the barbaric ways that Jews were treated — and then murdered — in Nazi Germany, and his false accusations that Israel commits apartheid.

ZOA strongly urges all organizations and companies that are promoting or sponsoring Waters’ concerts or the musician to withdraw their support because of Waters’ long-standing attacks against Israel and the Jewish People. In this time of dramatic increases in acts of Jew-hatred, both in America and throughout Europe, those who support Jew-haters, anti-Zionists, and Israelophobes must send a message that such bigoted attacks are not tolerated. No one — no matter how famous or popular — who incites Jew-hatred should be supported in a just society. Those who attack other minorities would not be receiving corporate support and neither should those who target Jewry, the right of Jews to self-determination, or the Jewish state of Israel.

Click here to read the full letter on zoa.org.