“An agitator at his best,” “sublime,” “majestic,” “beyond cancellation,” “polemical” and “spectacular.”
These were just a few of the adjectives used to describe Roger Waters’ recent concert in the British city of Birmingham following the former Pink Floyd rocker’s scandal-plagued tour across the rest of Europe that last week resulted in the opening of a German police investigation into Waters.
This followed a Berlin concert in which he donned a Nazi-style uniform and compared Holocaust victim Anne Frank to the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was accidentally killed while covering an Israeli arrest raid in the West Bank city of Jenin last May.
There is no question that Waters’ on-stage antics were antisemitic: comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is a clear breach of the internationally-recognized IHRA definition of Jew-hatred while his dressing as a Nazi no longer qualifies as satire given his disturbing views.
However, when Waters kicked off the UK leg of his “This Is Not a Drill” tour last week, the British media were out in force to repair the musician’s sullied reputation.
🧵 @rogerwaters ‘ recent performances have sparked outrage and a police investigation. pic.twitter.com/ofosuSbcwA
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 31, 2023
The Times of London gave the show (and Waters) a five-star rating in a piece that quoted the rocker’s “explosive tirade” against the “‘antisemitism bullshit’ dogging him across Europe,” as well as his foul claim that criticism of him is somehow being directed “from Tel Aviv” — something reviewer Mark Beaumont claims is Waters’ “old Pink paranoia poking through.”
Memo to Mark Beaumont: suggesting Israel somehow manipulates the global media is a little more than paranoia — it is antisemitic and reminiscent of the Zionist Occupied Government conspiracy theory.
Another alarming part of the glowing review is the sanitizing of Waters’ views as merely “pro-Palestinian” and calling the anger at his Nazi impersonation a “flimsy furore,” before concluding that it would be a “travesty to reduce [the show] to a Twitterstorm.”
Beaumont is either lying about Waters to make him more palatable or he is simply unaware of the odious views Waters has vocalized, including when he claimed Israeli policy is the “mass murder of Palestinians” and defended proscribed Islamist terror group Hamas as “the democratically elected government of Gaza.”
Meanwhile, The Telegraph opted to lead on Waters’ demented criticism of the UK press (ironic considering the gushing reviews of his shows) in a piece that completely glosses over his more unhinged views and even read as a kind of PR puff piece for Waters.
🎵 'I’m fighting back, Mr Telegraph,' roared Roger Waters from the stage in Birmingham last night. Well, here's what 'Mr Telegraph' thinks about that performance… https://t.co/4eLkzjRDh4
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 1, 2023
Indeed, the article actually sets the stage for an impassioned defense of the septuagenarian star in the third paragraph, with The Telegraph’s chief music critic Neil McCormick confessing that he has not come to the show to “bury Mr Waters, but to praise him.”
McCormick goes on to claim the Nazi stunt was “satirical” and confidently asserts that “anyone who has followed Waters’ career knows that he is not a closet fascist” and is, in fact, “quite the opposite” — a stance that the writer seemingly believes is evidenced in Waters “calling for boycotts of ‘apartheid state’ Israel.”
Apparently, McCormick believes it is anti-fascist to repeatedly call for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state and home to nearly 50 percent of the world’s Jews.
Finally, in a surprising turn of events, it was the chronically anti-Israel outlet The Guardian that featured Waters’ antisemitism more prominently, referencing his feud with former Pink Floyd bandmate Dave Gilmour and Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson, who have both slammed Waters over antisemitism, in the first paragraph and unequivocally stating that Waters has used “antisemitic tropes” during previous concerts.
Roger Waters review – embattled singer vows ‘I will not be cancelled’ https://t.co/IL8bDpwer8
— The Guardian (@guardian) June 1, 2023
But even then, the publication diluted Waters’ offensive opinions as showing “support for human rights in Palestine,” which gives a new meaning to the word understatement.
Naturally, Waters has gleefully promoted the enthusiastic reviews on Twitter, which is surely the greatest advertisement to the masses that being antisemitic really doesn’t come with any consequences.
What’s more, these ego-boosting reviews will only embolden Waters. First, it was Nazi uniforms, but who knows what he’ll think he can get away with next.
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region.
Image credit: Roberto Serra – Iguana Press via Getty Images
