Last month, among the announced honorees was music icon Stevie Wonder.
Stevie Wonder, Born in Michigan, 1950, a world-renowned singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, record producer -and an outstanding ambassador for peace. Stevie Wonder’s music draws its inspiration from rhythm and blues, jazz, soul, and funk, but its core is welded deeply into the rich culture of the black community throughout the history of the United States and its roots in Africa. Stevie Wonder’s beautiful and soulful lyrics reflect a wide variety of relevant topics, from deep personal thoughts and emotions up to social and political issues that deal with discrimination, racism, poverty and cultural expression within society as such they continue to be extremely relevant up to this day While the music contribution of Stevie Wonder has shaped popular music worldwide since the 1960s, with dozens of records and numerous unforgettable songs, his ongoing commitment to support social struggles in the interest of mankind and his activism for peace.... Wonder has left strong, lasting marks as a humanitarian, philanthropist and civil rights activist, as he has used his success and fame to affect people and make the world a better place.
Four weeks later, Israel-haters are now pressuring Wonder not to accept the award.
A BDS group started a petition for Wonder not to accept the award with a lie-filled screed:
We ask you to please consider what you’ll be sanctioning if you accept this: the occupation and suppression of the Palestinian people; their infinitely renewable incarceration without charge or trial in Israeli jails; the illegal collective punishment Palestinians suffer on a daily basis throughout Occupied Palestine; the denial of Palestinians’ right to return to their homeland – stolen and colonized in 1948; and ongoing practices of apartheid–including Israel’s refusal to vaccinate the Palestinian population under its military occupation for COVID while administering the vaccine to Jewish citizens.
In Palestine Today came up with a novel way to describe the Wolf Prize: "Stevie Wonder will receive Israel’s Wolf Prize, which is given to artists and scientists from around the world for whitewashing Israeli war crimes against Palestinians."
I guess they know something the Wolf Foundation doesn't.
Antisemite Roger Waters issued a profoundly condescending and insulting video to Wonder. Waters didn't even prepare what he was going to say, fumbling around to find the name of the prize and even admitting that he was half-drunk and rambling when recording a video to a music icon, but then saying "it doesn't matter" that he has so little respect for Wonder.
.@steviewonder, with respect, you turned down Haim Saban’s IDF fundraiser in 2012. Please turn down Israel’s @WolfPrize_ in 2021.
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) March 9, 2021
Love
R.https://t.co/VXS3pWP2X9 pic.twitter.com/KTeFk5ePck
Waters claims credit for convincing Wonder to decline a performance in 2012 for Friends of the IDF. That is a lie. Wonder did decide not to perform but the reason was because the UN asked him to, as he was a UN "Messenger of Peace" and it seemed incongruous for him to perform in support of any army. Wonder said he made the decision "with a heavy heart."
Expect the threats to Stevie Wonder to increase now that the haters have caught on to the story.
