During an appearance on “The Magnificent Others With Billy Corgan,” Disturbed singer David Draiman discussed the controversy surrounding his support of Israel and his decision to sign an artillery shell in the country. According to him, he “would sign every single piece of military equipment in existence if it meant that Hamas was finally eradicated and that the Palestinian people had a real chance at a real future.”
Draiman said the following about his Jewish roots:
“I come from a family of Holocaust survivors. 90% of my mother’s side of the family was wiped out by the Nazis. My grandfather was in Dachau. My grandmother was in Auschwitz. My grandmother and my grandfather on my father’s side have been living in the land of Israel since before it was established as a state, since the early 1900s we’ve had family there. My grandmother is Yemenite. Her family immigrated from them.
My grandfather’s Polish. He came in from Poland with the rest of his family. Everyone was escaping violence. Everyone was escaping the destruction and the horrors of the Holocaust.”
He continued when asked about being outspoken when it comes to Jewish causes:
“I’m not trying to be a tribalist, to be honest. I’m trying to be a humanist. I truly do have compassion for the Palestinian people. Truly, truly do. A lot of what everyone, for the past couple years, since I visited Israel after October 7th to pay my respects and support however I could, and just meet with families of the hostages — I’ve been blessed to actually befriend some of the former hostages over the course of the past couple years. It’s been a very surreal experience.
But what everybody loves to pick on is there’s this one wonderful picture of me signing an artillery shell by artillery unit that was on the Gaza border that I went to visit during that stay. And they’re like, ‘Oh, well, you signed the you signed a bomb. The bomb absolutely, definitely killed children or whatever else.’”
He also added the following after Corgan mentioned Kneecap’s criticism over the bomb signing:
“Of course. Of course. And that’s what everybody will go after after me about. But you know, here’s the thing. Believe it or not, contrary to public opinion, Jews are allowed to fight back. And if there is a genocidal organization on your border who is constantly launching rockets day after day, who’s committing the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust…
I have calls from my mother crying to me in her safe room, in her bomb shelter as rockets are coming down. I have friends of mine who barely survived the Nova Music Festival massacre because they decided to hide in a pile of garbage while friends of theirs were being raped around them and mutilated, who barely escaped with their lives, who were shot in the process of escape.
You know, people don’t understand there are human beings behind all of this destruction. There are lives. There’s real consequences. This isn’t some movie. This isn’t some storyline.”
He also confirmed that he doesn’t regret his decision to sign the weapon:
“Billy. I would sign every single piece of military equipment in existence if it meant that Hamas was finally eradicated and that the Palestinian people had a real chance at a real future. Extremism is a cancer for anyone, for any part of society or civilization. And they have been raised to hate and slaughter and lust over the murder of Jews since the day they were born. That’s unfortunate.
There are UN organizations like UNRA who facilitate this hatred, whose schools have teaching material that is pure incitement, that have cartoon characters that glorify the murder of Jews. That whole aspect of society needs to be deradicalized. It’s comparable to what needed to happen to Nazi Germany after World War II. You have an entire group of people who live, breathe, and die for one thing, and that is to to to slaughter Jews. And for anyone to have an issue,
They always have an issue when you fight back. It’s never… everyone loves dead Jews. Everyone loves persecuted Jews. Everyone loves to feel bad. But God forbid we actually raise our fist to defend ourselves, then we’re the bad guy. You know, the insinuation that every single piece of military equipment that was used in that conflict killed innocents is absolutely preposterous.
You’re talking about even if you take Hamas’s health ministries numbers at face value, you’re talking about the lowest civilian to combatant ratio in modern warfare history. You’re talking about a war that needed to be waged in an urban environment. In an urban environment where not only is martyrdom glorified, but it’s encouraged and it’s part of the culture.
You have Palestinian mothers that dream of their sons one day becoming shahed, becoming martyrs, and and it’s a disgusting way to live life. I wish better for them.”
[via The PRP]
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