Former Pink Floyd singer and bassist, Roger Waters, claimed in an interview on August 29, with Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera English’s senior international correspondent, that he has never spoken an antisemitic word in his entire life, putting the blame of his bad image on Israel’s government for investing millions of dollars into demonizing whoever is trying to defend Palestinians.
The Post goes on to list some counterexamples:
During a concert he held in 2013, an inflatable pig marked with a Star of David was featured.
In a 2013 interview with the left wing website Counterpunch, he suggested that some artists don’t take controversial positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict partly because “the Jewish lobby is extraordinary [sic] powerful” in the US music industry. He also claimed that the “right wing rabbinate” is responsible for promoting bigotry against non-Jews among Israelis.
In 2017, Waters compared the Israeli government to Nazi Germany, said there were no harsher regimes in the world – and then contradicted both himself and facts several times in an hour-long live video chat on Facebook.
Earlier this year, he called Jewish philanthropist Sheldon Adelson “the puppet master who is pulling the strings of Donald Trump, [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo, and what’s his name…the ambassador, Greenberg, I think his name is,” Waters said, and went on to describe Adelson as a “right-wing fascist racist bigot.”
All of these examples are valid, even though Waters would argue that they are merely anti-Zionist.
But the real proof of Waters' antisemitism comes from that last Hamas TV interview where he discussed Sheldon Adelson and described him as the "puppet master" behind Trump:
Waters apologized over part of what he said:
After speaking with Palestinian and Jewish colleagues and friends, I’ve come to understand that some remarks I made during a recent TV interview, about Palestinians suffering under decades of Israeli military occupation and apartheid, have caused some deep offense. Naturally, this is the last thing I would ever want to do, particularly within a justice movement which I care about so passionately.
During the Interview, in expressing my total solidarity with and support for the Palestinian people, when referring to Sheldon Adelson’s support for the racist policies of both Trump and Netanyahu, I used words that evoked metaphorical imagery which, my friends said, were “harmful to Jewish people and to the movement for Palestinian rights” – and for this, I’m very sorry.
At the time, I had no idea that I was evoking an antisemitic trope. I regret any harm or hurt my use of words caused Jewish people, and also any ways it may have reinforced damaging lies about Jews. Nothing could have been further from my intentions. I have only respect and compassion for my Jewish brothers and sisters in our collective struggle for a more just and peaceful world.
But he didn't apologize over the most offensive part - the part that proves his antisemitism beyond any doubt.
In that interview, Waters said, "Sheldon Adelson believes that only Jews – only Jewish people – are completely human. That they are attached in some way…and that everybody else on Earth is there to serve them."
There is no source that Adelson believes anything remotely resembling this. Waters didn't read anywhere that Adelson believes this. He is quoting neo-Nazi websites that falsely say that the Talmud teaches this and he is applying that Nazi antisemitic thinking to a rich, believing Jew.
