David Draiman in an interview with i24 News. Photo: Screenshot.

David Draiman, the Jewish lead singer of the rock band Disturbed, said Israel was facing “particular judgement and preferential boycotting that no other country in the world is subject to” in a recent interview with i24 News.

Draiman, who talked to the outlet ahead of his band’s performance in Tel Aviv last week, said, “Places like Venezuela and Syria and the Sudan and all over the African continent, which are committing grave crimes against humanity…none of them get the level of judgement and scrutiny that the Israeli government does.”

He added, “There isn’t [sic] another people on the planet who are treated the same way.”

An outspoken critic of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, Draiman said he did not understand the point of artists refusing to perform in the Jewish state. He asked, “what are they hoping to achieve by holding back their art from the general population? What good is that going to do? What is the justification in holding back your creativity and your art? Music and art was created and is created to bring people together. Not to separate them. It’s meant to build bridges, not to burn them down.”

The 46-year-old — who sits on the advisory board for Creative Community for Peace, an entertainment industry advocacy group — gave himself as an example, explaining that he did not necessarily agree with decisions made by the Trump administration, but that would never stop him from performing in the US. He said there was no sense to the “really unfair amount of unjustified treatment and persecution” that Israel receives.

Draiman also called out ex-Pink Floyd frontman and BDS supporter Roger Waters for his efforts to “distort truth on behalf of their ridiculous hateful narrative” against Israel.

The singer concluded by saying that performing in Israel had been a lifelong dream. “I am hoping that this can be the beginning of a relationship, creatively that will last many, many years,” he said. “I hope to keep coming back here.”

Watch the full i24 News interview with Draiman below: