Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd musician, has a long history of baiting Jews. It’s time he faces consequences.

Mr Waters is due to perform at the London Palladium in the United Kingdom on 8th and 9th October before moving on to tour South America. He regularly embarks on major tours across the United States and Europe.

Venues must not host his hate. The London Palladium is owned by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and the performances are arranged by Live Nation, whose CEO and President is Michael Rapino.

Lord Lloyd Webber, Mr Rapino, these performances must not go ahead.

It says something about Mr Waters that he incessantly needs to insist that he is not an antisemite. He has used the most appalling antisemitic language, behaved abominably to Jewish people in his circle, has a penchant for breaching the International Definition of Antisemitism, has claimed that antisemitism is used as a “smear”, and has a long history of baiting Jews.

In light of this record and our latest revelations, venues must tell Roger Waters that he is no longer welcome. Artistic freedom does not justify hate.

Hey, Roger, leave those Jews alone.

Until he does, venues should not host his hate.

Revelations in The Dark Side of Roger Waters

An exposé published by Campaign Against Antisemitism in September 2023, titled The Dark Side of Roger Waters, revealed:

• E-mails from Mr Waters in which he proposed writing “Dirty k***” on the inflatable pig habitually floated above his concerts, and suggested “bombing” audiences with confetti in the shape of swastikas, Stars of David, dollar signs and other symbols.
• Mr Waters’ former saxophonist, Norbert Stachel, recounted a meal while on tour in Lebanon at which only vegetarian dishes had been served so far: “Finally the twelfth or thirteenth dish came out. The waiter seemed intimidated already by the attitude and personalities and the loudness and the kinda arrogance and finally this dish comes and Roger kinda pushes it with his arm and he goes: ‘That’s it! That’s it! Where’s the meat? Where’s the meat? What’s with this? This is Jew food! What’s with the Jew food! Take away the Jew food!’ and I’m just sitting there: ‘Oh boy,’ you know, tongue tied again and kind of in a panic.”
• Legendary producer Bob Ezrin, who produced Pink Floyd’s The Wall, revealed: “I can’t remember the exact circumstance, but something like you know...the last line of the couplet was ‘’Cos Morri is a fucking Jew.’ It was my first inclination that there may be some antisemitism under the surface.” “Morri” was a reference to Mr Waters’ then-agent, Bryan Morrison.
• Mr Stachel further recounted: “Well, he’s [Waters] looking at me and he says ‘You know Norbert, I’d like to take this opportunity to maybe get to know you a little bit better’…and I told him a little bit about my family background that they’re Ashkenazi Jews that they’re holocaust survivors from Minsk and Poland and he kinda was smiling in a kind of an awkward way…He says how about other relatives: ‘Are there relatives on your father’s side?’ I said: ‘Not that I’m aware of; I think most of them were killed’ he went ‘Oh,’ he says, ‘I can help you feel like you’re meeting your long-lost relatives um, I can introduce you to you dead grandmother I can do a good Polish peasant, an imitation — an impression of a Polish peasant woman’. He tried to go into character as a babushka and he puts on this impression of an old hag you know he does it — he makes his voice certain way tries to portray a Polish Jewish peasant women’s voice…it was kinda like a slapstick insulting way someone would think a person of no education and low class and maybe not real smart would speak and talk…what got me is after he does this, he goes: ‘Now you’ve met your grandmother! How do you feel now?’”
• Mr Stachel recalled the moment a fellow Jewish member of Waters’ entourage approached him: “He explains to me: ‘Norbert you know us Jews recognise each other I know you’re Jewish you know I know that you know that I’m Jewish. Don’t ever tell Roger that I’m a person of Jewish — okay just don’t do it.’ He says ‘I’ll make life hard for you if you do that — just you know, I like you a lot but don’t jeopardise my job. I need to tell you something: if you wanna keep this job let me give you some advice, just shut up about the Jewish stuff keep it to yourself just when he says something just go with it or politely bow out of it.’ I have to go to bathroom or whatever you know because…don’t make a fuss. ‘I’m telling you this as a friend, keep the gig you want the gig right, you wanna do the full duration of this, you wanna have the experience and make the money travel the world fly all over the place meet people, you know’ and I said ‘Yeah,’ says ‘Well take my advice: don’t react.’”
• Mr Stachel also recounted: “I overheard an argument with a former girlfriend of Roger’s getting into a van to go to a venue…and they were arguing and they were arguing about are Jews a race or not and Roger I heard him say ‘No they’re white European men that grow beards and they practise the religion Judaism but they’re no different than me they have no difference in their background or their history or their culture or anything. They speak a different language and they practise a different religion and they grow beards.’ She’s saying ‘Jewish people there’s Ashkenazim there’s Sephardim there’s Mizrachi Jews they’re from different parts they all have their lineage no matter how light skinned and European looking and Caucasian they look they all have their roots and their DNA come from North Africa and Israel, that’s where they come from to certain degrees.’ And he was, you know ‘balderdash’, ‘bollocks’ you know, you know, ‘they’re just white men like me with beards.’”

Past incidents

• In the summer of 2023, Mr Waters claimed that an MP who criticised his views on the Jews was “working for his masters in the Foreign Office in Tel Aviv”, before calling him a “cripple”.

• At a concert on 17th May 2023 at the O2 in London, Mr Waters compared Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who was murdered during the Holocaust, to a journalist killed in crossfire between terrorists and Israeli security forces in the Palestinian Authority.

• In an October 2022 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Mr Waters denied being an antisemite, before going on to address a past concert in which he unveiled a balloon pig with a Star of David, alongside other various symbols, emblazoned on its side. He said: “Well, it’s a symbol of an oppressive state. I am lumping you in but it’s not just you.”
  He continued: “But that is just me criticising the policies of your government and I’m afraid the Star of David does represent the nation that is committing the crime of apartheid every day, and murdering Palestinians every day. Men women and children, every single day. So yeah, I did [put the Star of David on the side of a pig], and I’m unapologetic about it.”

• Mr Waters openly criticised the International (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism, complaining that “It’s not just me…they smear anyone, anyone, who dares to suggest there’s something bad about their policies. So that’s why the [Definition] is so bad, and so dangerous.”

• Taking issue with one of the examples in the Definition, the musician went on to say that the Definition “can’t mean” that the State of Israel should not be criticised for behaving “like people in the past…towards Jews in Northern Europe.”
  According to the Definition, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.”

• In 2021, Mr Waters claimed that antisemitism is a “smear sword wielded at the behest of the Israeli Government”, stating: “The antisemitism smear sword that was wielded at the behest of the Israeli government, [was] specifically aimed at Jeremy Corbyn because he was left wing and he might turn into a political leader on the left in the United Kingdom who would actually stand up for human rights in general but specifically the rights of working people to represent themselves and have unions.”

• In 2020, the musician said that Zionism needs to be “gently removed”, apparently denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination under Article 1 of the United Nations Charter.
  He also said that American leaders are puppets of the Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

• Mr Waters has also claimed that Israel teaches America how to “murder the blacks”. He later apologised for this latter remark.

• In 2013, he reportedly claimed that there is a “Jewish lobby” in the music industry.

• He has also mocked Jewish students for raising concerns about antisemitism at universities, despite the recorded rise in anti-Jewish incidents on campuses.

• Mr Waters has been criticised by British MPs and the US State Department in the past for his views about Jewish people, and his concerts have previously attracted the support of anti-Israel protesters shouting antisemitic chants. Campaign Against Antisemitism has also interviewed some of his antisemitism-denying fans in the past.

• Given his incendiary record, Mr Waters has gained the support of some of the most prominent antisemites in the world, for example, David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, has taken to the social media platform Gab where he appeared to defend Mr Waters. In a similar fashion, the antisemitic hate preacher and conspiracy theorist David Icke used his own platform to display empathy for Roger Waters.