{"id":566936,"date":"2026-07-30T13:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/566936\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:46:16","slug":"roger-waters-reimagines-the-pink-floyd-classic-comfortably-numb-as-appeal-for-palestinian-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/566936\/","title":{"rendered":"Roger Waters reimagines the Pink Floyd classic \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d as appeal for Palestinian rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Waters\u2019 new nine\u2011minute remake<\/a> of the popular Pink Floyd track \u201cComfortably Numb,\u201d recorded with Palestinian singer Mona Miari, is a powerful creative reworking of a classic rock music lament into an indictment of the Gaza genocide and an appeal for international solidarity with the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

Roger Waters and Mona Miari<\/p>\n

Across several new English and Arabic verses, the song modifies the original, satirical refrain of resignation, \u201cI have become comfortably numb,\u201d into a vow: \u201cI will never become comfortably numb \/ \u0644\u0646 \u0623\u0633\u0645\u062d\u064e \u0623\u0646 \u0623\u064f\u0635\u0628\u062d\u064e \u0645\u064f\u062e\u062f\u0651\u064e\u0631\u064b\u0627 \u0648\u0645\u0631\u062a\u0627\u062d.\u201d Waters closes the new version with, \u201cPalestine must be free\u2026 with equal rights, for everyone, from the river to the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cComfortably Numb\u2013Reimagined,\u201d released on June 12 and credited to both Waters and Miari, is an arrangement built around piano, strings, percussion and layered vocals. The project is explicitly framed as a response to what Waters and Miari describe as the \u201ccontinued genocide in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

The release is also raising funds for the Palestine Children\u2019s Relief Fund and is linked to a network of political education, grassroots organizing and independent media projects centered on Palestine.<\/p>\n

The film version of the song splices video of Waters in New York and Miari in the studio with black\u2011and\u2011white footage shot by Palestinian photographer Suhail Nassar and his crew amid the rubble of Gaza. It presents the visuals of the project as belonging to those living through the war.<\/p>\n

For Miari, who grew up under Israeli occupation, the collaboration is an act of narration. As she explains, \u201cI am my people. I am telling my story.\u201d Waters has described the composition as an \u201corganic\u201d correspondence between \u201can old bloke in New York City\u201d and a Palestinian artist across the sea.<\/p>\n

Waters has described the shift from the original\u2019s most famous line as a message and conscious refusal of the pressure to tune out, depoliticize and retreat into numbness in the face of the atrocities being committed against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

From the video<\/p>\n

In an interview with Wired, Waters says he hopes listeners will eventually recognize that \u201cthere is a right and a wrong. This is not complicated, and this song is on the right side of history,\u201d connecting the refusal to be numb with moral clarity and political awareness.<\/p>\n

In the new English lyrics, Waters modifies the song\u2019s perspective with spoken word-style singing:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I feel your pain from New York City \/ I feel your pain across the sea \/ That distant ship on the horizon \/ Is calling out to you and me.<\/p>\n

And later, he sings:<\/p>\n

We never knew about the Nakba \/ I was only five years old in \u201948 \/ We were unaware, what was happening over there \/ It breaks my heart I came on board so late \/ You reached us all with your rallying call \/ Now we stand at the gate.<\/p>\n

The official project site publishes a complete bilingual text and translation of the new lyrics, which allows the listener to follow Miari\u2019s Arabic verses as a continuous thread running through the re\u2011imagined piece.<\/p>\n

Miari enters after Waters\u2019 opening lines with an answer from the ruins of Gaza:<\/p>\n

After all that\u2019s happened \/ There\u2019s no one left \/ No words are left \/ Why ask at all? \/ All that is gone \/ Home\u2026 beloved home.<\/p>\n

Mona Miari<\/p>\n

In her second major Arabic passage she replaces the introspection of the original with a generational declaration:<\/p>\n

When I was young, I dreamt of freedom \/ Today it is hope that fuels who I am \/ We are roots breaking through rocks \/ From under the rubble, we birth our fate \/ We are the light after darkness \/ We are what\u2019s promised, we are the dream.<\/p>\n

Waters says the project falls within the Palestinian political concept of \u201cSum\u00fcd,\u201d an Arabic term that translated as \u201csteadfastness\u201d and carrying a deeper connotation of rooted, collective perseverance. He has said the song is \u201cpart of \u2018Sum\u00fcd\u2019\u2026 the perseverance to resist the occupation of Palestine completely, all of Palestine, not just\u2026 Gaza and the West Bank, we\u2019re talking about the whole thing from the river to the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead a decade, Miari has said she hopes that \u201cwhoever listens to \u2018Comfortably Numb\u2013Reimagined\u2019 could also experience a free Palestine and look back at it as a testament about the truth and what happened and just cherish that sense of resistance and urgency for freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

She stresses that the work is not intended as a protest song but functions as \u201ca call to action\u2026 forcing everyone to confront and to understand, to even sit with their discomfort about this truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions about this article? Ask Socialism AI<\/p>\n

Waters\u2019 collaboration with Miari is the latest in a series of actions going back two decades, during which he has become one of the most prominent popular Western musicians to publicly support Palestinian rights and describe Israel as an apartheid state.<\/p>\n

Roger Waters<\/p>\n

Waters has increasingly characterized his creative works and statements as a defense of universal human rights, referenced the United Nations Charter and opposed ethnic cleansing and military occupation.<\/p>\n

Responding to persistent smears that he is antisemitic, from apologists for the mass murder in Gaza, Waters told an interviewer this year: \u201cI don\u2019t have an antisemitic bone in my body, I never did and I never will have. \u2026 I\u2019m interested in human rights for my brothers and sisters, whoever they are. Color of the skin, religion, nationality, politics\u2014I couldn\u2019t care less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waters has linked the attacks on him directly to organized efforts by the Israeli state and its allies to equate opposition to Zionist policy with antisemitism, correctly insisting such campaigns are designed to intimidate and silence dissent.<\/p>\n

In discussing the new song, Waters said he and Miari understand themselves as \u201cpart of an existential battle for the whole human race, for the soul of the human race,\u201d and invites listeners \u201cto join the resistance to the occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cComfortably Numb\u2013Reimagined\u201d is Waters\u2019 second reworking of the track. In 2022, during what he called the \u201cLockdown Sessions,\u201d Waters issued a stripped\u2011down version of \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d built around voice, synths, and strings, and removing the original\u2019s electric guitar solo.<\/p>\n

When \u201cComfortably Numb\u201d first appeared on the Pink Floyd album \u201cThe Wall\u201d in 1979, its lyrics were intended to bring out and criticize the condition of a rock star so psychologically damaged that he must be medicated\u2014drugged into a functional stupor\u2014to perform. The \u201cnumbness\u201d in question was an anesthesia produced by the reality of a \u201cstar\u201d alienated from his audience and from his own body.<\/p>\n

In \u201cComfortably Numb\u2013Reimagined,\u201d Waters and Miari pivot and the \u201cnumbness\u201d they reject is not merely the self\u2011protective shutting down of an individual artist, but the cultivated indifference of publics, governments, media and cultural institutions confronted with live\u2011streamed war crimes in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The haunting melody and familiar refrain are deployed to highlight the need for those who watch, read and listen to take action against the bombing, starvation and displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. Waters and Miari counterpose sum\u00fcd\u2014steadfastness\u2014to passivity and inaction and appeal to the public to overcome \u201ccomfortable numbness\u201d and join the global movement to fight for the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Waters\u2019 new nine\u2011minute remake of the popular Pink Floyd track \u201cComfortably Numb,\u201d recorded with Palestinian singer Mona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-566936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}