Pink Floyd’s troubled Waters strikes once more.
Controversial rock frontman Roger Waters is again in sizzling water after seemingly cosplaying as a Nazi SS officer — and evaluating deceased Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh to Anne Frank at a latest live performance in Germany.
The inflammatory efficiency, which went down final week on the Mercedes-Benz Area in Berlin, opened up with an announcement on a display screen that learn: “On a matter of public curiosity: a courtroom in Frankfurt has dominated that I’m not an antisemite.“
“Simply to be clear, I condemn antisemitism unreservedly,” the message continued, the Jerusalem Put up reported.
Waters, 79, has turn out to be infamous for making controversial remarks, infamously evaluating the State of Israel to the Nazis over their therapy of the Palestinians throughout varied press interviews.
The “One other Brick within the Wall” legend’s feedback have sparked outraged with many critics accusing the rock star of anti-Semitism.
On this newest efficiency, the Rock & Roll Corridor Of Famer could possibly be seen prancing about on stage gussied up in what seemed to be an SS uniform. Hanging above him had been Third Reich-style pink banners however with the Swastika swapped out for crossed hammer insignias.
Elsewhere through the spectacle, Waters sang “Lay Down Jerusalem (If I Had Been God)” whereas displaying the phrase “F$%& the occupation.”
At one level, a display screen formed like a crucifix displayed the names of deceased figures, together with George Floyd, the black man whose demise by the hands of Minnesota cops sparked international protest and resulted within the formation of Black Lives Matter.
Maybe most controversial was the inclusion of Anne Franke, the Jewish teenager killed through the Holocaust, and Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was fatally shot yr whereas protecting a raid by the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) on a Palestinian refugee camp.
Many Palestinian sources, together with CNN, claimed that she’d been intentionally focused by the IDF, though the latter has denied this declare, the Impartial reported.
Both manner, members of the Jewish group discovered this juxtaposition, in addition to the live performance as an entire, extremely problematic.
“Good morning to each one however Roger Waters who spent the night in Berlin (Sure Berlin) desecrating the reminiscence of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered within the Holocaust,” the Israel International Ministry fumed in a Twitter assertion.
The Simon Wiesenthal Heart additionally condemned the spectacle, Tweeting: Disgrace on Frankfurt authorities and Mercedes Benz area in Berlin — a spot from the place Jews had been deported by the Nazis — for offering antisemite #RogerWaters this venue for his live performance with no concern/look after the Jewish group.”
This isn’t the primary time Waters has been within the social media crosshairs over his inflammatory opinions.
In February, the rabble-rousing rocker gave an interview for Germany’s Berliner Zeitung, through which he doubled down on his prior feedback evaluating Israel to the Third Reich, and in addition defended Russian President Vladimir Putin over his determination to invade the Ukraine.
He was subsequently eviscerated on Twitter by Polly Samson, the spouse of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.
The “Kindness” writer accused the band’s cofounder of being “antisemitic” to his “rotten core” and labelled him a a “Putin apologist and a mendacity, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac.”
Shortly thereafter, Gilmour, 76, appreciated and retweeted his spouse’s Twitter hit piece with the message: “Each phrase demonstrably true.”
Apparently not happy with the husband-and-wife Twitter tag crew, Waters’ camp posted a rebuttal on Instagram hours later.
“Roger Waters is conscious of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate feedback made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes totally,” the assertion learn. “He’s at present taking recommendation as to his place.”
In the meantime, in response to the accusations of anti-Jewish bigotry, the Brit declared: “[There’s] not a single millisecond of antisemitism anyplace in my life.”