Former Pink Floyd Frontman Roger Waters Receives Backlash after Antisemitic Remarks on Tour

Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters is receiving backlash after holding a concert in Berlin, Germany. The singer, who has been accused of antisemitic antics, shared Anne Frank’s name on the venue’s jumbotron to link the holocaust victim to the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Akleh was killed last year on an assignment while covering Israel’s operation in the West Bank. Following the comparison of Israel and Nazi Germany, an Orthodox rabbinical association attempted to ban Waters from ever performing in the country again.

Waters, who has ties to the boycott Israel Movement, also sported a SS uniform and pretended to shoot a machine gun into the crowd of concert-goers. His set also included a pig-shaped balloon with an Israeli armaments firm logo.

Following the show, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spoke out and claimed that Waters’ stunt was inappropriate and a form of antisemitism.

“Good morning to everyone but Roger Waters, who spent the evening in Berlin ( Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust,” read the tweet.

A Jewish organization considered the musician’s performance involving the anti-Semitic actions as “Holocaust Distortion.” They wondered how the country would allow this to happen in 2023.

“This vile jew hater also compared the murder of Holocaust victim Anne Frank to the accidental killing of a reporter covering the Israel/Palestinian conflict,” wrote StopAntisemitism nonprofit on social media. “How did Germany allow this to happen in 2023?”

The concert was part of his This Is Not a Drill Farewell Tour. The “Oceans Apart” artist is slated to perform again in Frankfurt, Germany, on May 28. The vocalist was recently caught in a legal battle, as Frankfurt initially canceled the vocalist’s concert due to his antisemitic track record and accusations.

The court overturned the ruling in late April, giving him the right to perform. The concert will take place at the Festhalle, a historic venue where 3,000 Jewish men were once arrested in 1938 and transported to concentration camps. The court claimed it was Waters’ “artistic freedom” to perform.

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