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State Dept. Denounces Roger Waters’ Berlin Concerts As “Deeply Offensive to the Jewish People”

Waters came under fire for donning a Nazi-like uniform and comparing Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israel Defense Force raid in Jenin last year, to Anne Frank during his May 17 and 18 shows in Berlin.
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June 8, 2023
Roger Waters performs onstage at Crypto.com Arena on September 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The State Department denounced former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters’ recent concert imagery as being “deeply offensive to the Jewish people” and said that Waters has a lengthy history of antisemitism.

The Associated Press (AP) reported that at a June 6 press briefing, the department was asked if they agreed with a tweet from Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt tweet condemning Waters’ “despicable Holocaust distortion.” The department replied that Lipstadt’s tweet “speaks for itself.” “The concert in question, which took place in Berlin, contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust,” they said. “The artist in question has a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people.”

Waters came under fire for donning a Nazi-like uniform and comparing Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israel Defense Force raid in Jenin last year, to Anne Frank during his May 17 and 18 shows in Berlin. The former Pink Floyd frontman is being investigated by Berlin police over the matter; German law bars the display of Nazi symbols but provides an exception for artistic or educational purposes. The former Pink Floyd frontman responded with a May 26 statement denouncing the “bad faith attacks from those who want to smear me and silence me because they disagree with my political views and moral principles.” “The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms,” Waters said at the time. “Attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated. The depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ in 1980. I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it. When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price.”

Waters’ most recent concert was in London on June 6; video footage from the concert shows Waters lamenting to the audience about recent attempts to “cancel” him. “I watched Jeremy Corbyn being canceled by the Israeli lobby. That is what happened in 2019,” he said to a cheering audience. Waters then directed his ire at Labour Member of Parliament Christian Wakeford, who issued a statement deriding Waters for using “the name of Anne Frank to stoke division, performed while dressed as an SS soldier, and used the Star of David on a giant pig to insinuate that Jewish people run the world.” He first addressed Wakeford’s claim on Frank, calling it “a blatant and evil and vicious lie,” arguing that Frank’s name was listed among those who were “killed either by militarized police or by tyrannical racist regimes. Anne Frank is one of them and we pay our respect to Anne Frank by remembering her name.” Waters defended listing Abu Akhleh’s name as well, claiming that the IDF shot her “on purpose.” “She was murdered by a racist, tyrannical regime,” Waters alleged, adding that it had nothing to with sowing division. The IDF has said it’s “highly likely” she was killed by an IDF bullet on accident.

As for Wakeford’s claim about the SS uniform, Waters noted that the armbands on the costume depicted “crossed hammers,” showing that the Nazi-like uniform is meant to be “satire.” Waters also lambasted Wakeford for the Star of David claim; Waters’ recent Berlin shows did not feature a Star of David on the flying pig but did have the Israel-based international defense company Elbit Systems’ logo.

“You are making s— up because you’ve been told to by your masters in the Foreign Office in Tel Aviv,” Waters said to Wakeford. “Because this hate is being organized from Israel.”

Israellycool Israel Advocacy Executive Director David Lange wrote in a blog post that Waters’ soliloquy during the show was “one of his most antisemitic yet.” “Invoking the antisemitic trope of an all-powerful lobby (of Jews) silencing people and controlling politicians in foreign countries, and spreading the ‘blood libel’ that we deliberately murdered Shireen Abu Akleh (not borne out by any of the evidence or findings) because we are racist – this rant – like the one in Birmingham – just reaffirmed how full of Jew hatred he truly is,” Lange wrote. “And the audience lapped it up.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted, “No consequences for the pied piper of #Antisemitism and Holocaust distortion. How many thousands cheered @rogerwaters on in Berlin, Frankfurt and London? A direct injection of anti-Semitism into the mainstream of societies.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said in a June 7 statement that Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer wrote in a letter to them on June 1 that the party “stands with the Jewish community and fully condemns Roger Waters. Many people will think of Roger Waters as famous for being a member of one of the most important bands in history, but he is now more synonymous with spreading deeply troubling antisemitism.” Starmer had said he didn’t want Waters’ Britain shows to move forward because “views like this should not be given a platform.” Similarly, British Secretary of State for Levelling up Housing & Communities and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations Michael Gove wrote in a June 6 letter to the Jewish group: “The Government is clear that everyone has a clear and fundamental right to freedom of speech and artistic expression, so long as they remain within the boundaries set by law. There is also a societal expectation placed on people with a significant public profile to behave responsibly and not abuse their platform. This is an expectation of which Roger Waters is reportedly falling short.”

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