TORONTO

When Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters — labelled a vociferous anti-Israel bigot — arrives in town for a series of concert dates Monday, two leading Jewish organizations have a show of their own planned for him.

Just as the concert is set to start, B’nai Brith Canada will be premiering a new film, Wish You Weren’t Here — which explores the rise in anti-Semitism worldwide and Waters’ aggressive support of the hateful Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which targets and singles out Israel with economic sanctions and boycotts.

And StandWithUs Canada, a pro-Israel advocacy group, will sponsor a truck that will drive around Toronto’s financial district for four hours Monday until concert time flashing: “Say No to Israel boycotts” and “Say No to Roger Waters.”

The British musician, seen as the most notorious name leading the BDS campaign, has repeatedly endeavoured to push for a cultural boycott of Israel, often taking to social media to try to intimidate fellow artists into not performing in Israel.

His most recent attempt to have Radiohead cancel their July 19 concert in Tel Aviv not only failed, but made headlines in Rolling Stone magazine.

“This film is so important because Roger Waters has really become the face of BDS … as an entertainer he’s using his platform to promote BDS and the anti-Semitism it represents is terrible,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada Sunday.

The film, created by New York Times bestselling author and award-winning filmmaker Ian Halperin, will be screened at a downtown theatre just blocks from Waters’ Air Canada Centre concert. B’nai Brith will also screen the film in every city across Canada where Waters has a concert date.

Halperin, the son of a Holocaust survivor, said he was moved to create the film when he heard Waters, shockingly, compare Israel to Nazi Germany.

He said Waters’ comparison was “egregious,” “completely false” and “distorts history” considering Israel is by far the most democratic country in the Middle East (respecting both women and gay rights).

He said he finds it “shameful” and “disgraceful” that corporate America continually books Waters, who is known for including a pink pig balloon wearing a Jewish star in his act and wearing a Nazi uniform on stage. He has also regularly called Israel an apartheid state.

Halperin, who found himself constantly in tears at the rise in anti-Semitism globally throughout the two years it took to film his latest movie, said if the British performer came out wearing a white sheet denouncing African-Americans, he would not get out of the arena alive.

“With Jews, people get a free pass,” he said, noting in his movie former British Prime Minister Tony Blair calls Waters anti-Semitic and Alan Dershowitz refers to him as an anti-Israel “bigot.”

“Anyone who books this guy is promoting hate speech,” Halperin said. “I find it extremely disrespectful to the six million people who died in the Holocaust to allow this guy to perform.”

Mostyn says Waters is not only slandering the state of Israel but doesn’t understand the “real world impact” on Jews — who get targeted with anti-Semitism as a result of his continual diatribes and “intimidation” of other performers not to keep concert dates in Israel.

He hopes the film educates the public about the rise in contemporary anti-Semitism and acts as a counter-protest of Waters’ actions.

“We hope Roger Waters knows while he’s standing on stage that the Jewish community is not standing for this,” says Mostyn. “There is no place in Canada for hatred such as this.”

slevy@postmedia.com