Between Spotify, Joe Rogan, and Trevor Noah – David Draiman of Disturbed has been on quite the vocal journey lately. Now he’s gotten into another major conversation, specifically that of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Draiman, who is of Jewish descent, spoke to the The Jerusalem Post Podcast regarding his decision to reactive his Twitter account, after having been absent from the platform for many years.
As transcribed by Blabbermouth, the vocalist said, “It’s difficult sometimes knowing how much animosity exists for not only our people but for the state of Israel and that has been continuing to build and perpetuate over the course of the past 15 to 20 years specifically. I’ve seen tangible changes over the course of my career and my life, and I felt the need to return to social media on a more public level because of how bad things have gotten.”
Speaking to what specifically has upset him so much and what has pushed him to be vocal, Draiman shared, “Oh, God. The number of blatant, public, unapologetic attacks that have occurred in particular of late, particularly over the course of the past three to five years, really, really hit a nerve with me. Jews are attacked on the streets of New York City, whether it’s Brooklyn or anywhere else, on a regular basis at this point. The attacks occur in Los Angeles; they occur in Southern Florida — they occur all over the place… And [the attackers have] been emboldened from several factors from a world that has become increasingly demonizing of not only Israel but of Jews in general. There’s nothing like a good pandemic to make all the conspiracy theorists of the world foam at the mouth at the opportunity to blame the Jewish people again for some aspect of their suffering. It’s just a very, very frightening time to me. And being a parent in this world to a child of a mixed family — a mixed family that consists of two of the demographics that probably currently are the most attacked, Jews and Asians — I felt very compelled to try and see if I could once again utilize this platform that I’ve been blessed with and follow my conscience a little bit more.”
He also shared that he is not concerned about alienating any Disturbed fans with his vocal stance. “Thankfully I’ve reached a point in my career where I really don’t give a shit anymore. If somebody wants to go ahead and cast their stones at me, they know that I’m very, very careful about separating what I do as a musician from who I am as an individual, and if they can’t come to terms with it, then that’s their problem. I honestly don’t see people not coming to our shows because I’m continuing to talk about something that they’ve already known for two decades. I don’t care. I’ve made my money, we have our band, they know who I am, I know who they are, and they love us for it regardless.”
David Draiman said that he has lost “thousands of social media followers” since vocally sharing his stance. If you want to hear the whole conversation with David Draiman on The Jerusalem Post Podcast, you can find that below:
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Words by: Michael Pementel
