Pink Floyd Bassist Tells Pro-Palestinian Site Boycotting Israel Is the 'Way to Go

Roger Waters, center, founding member of Pink Floyd, meets U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, while Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sits waiting for the start of a meeting on Palestine, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012 in New York. (AP)

Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters told a pro-Palestinian website that Israel needs to be boycotted the same way South Africa was during the apartheid era.

Waters, the bassist for the legendary English rock band, told Electronic Intifada that a boycott of Israel is "the way to go."

"I think that the kind of boycott that was implemented against the apartheid regime in South Africa back in the day is probably the most effective way to go because the situation is that the Israeli government runs an apartheid regime in Israel, the occupied territories and everywhere else it decides," Waters told the site.

Waters said he has personally asked fellow musicians to boycott Israel -- though declined to provide names -- and said he has written an open letter urging the music community to join the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions.

He said he was heartened by Stevie Wonder's decision in December to cancel a concert benefiting the Israeli military.

Waters addressed the United Nations last year, calling Israel "guilty of a number of international crimes" including apartheid and ethnic cleansing.