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Roger Waters Defends Himself Against Charges of Anti-Semitism: ‘I Have Many Very Close Jewish Friends’
In an open letter published on his Facebook page, musician Roger Waters, a fierce anti-Israel advocate, responded to allegations made by Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center last week in an interview with The Algemeiner that Waters is an “open hater of Jews.”
“Often I can ignore these attacks, but Rabbi Cooper’s accusations are so wild and bigoted they demand a response,” Waters begins his riposte, then, addressing Cooper directly, writes: “I hold your outburst to be inflammatory and un-helpful and would suggest it can only impede progress towards peace and understanding between people. It is also extremely insulting to me personally in that you accuse me of being ‘Anti Semitic’, ‘A Jew Hater’ and ‘Nazi Sympathizer.'” …
The Algemeiner’s report cited Alon Onfus Asif, an Israeli Jew, who attended a Waters show in Belgium and spotted the Jewish Star of David affixed to an inflatable pig alongside “other symbols for fascism, dictatorships and oppression of people.” He posted footage of the offensive display on YouTube.
In the video the pig’s hind quarters appear to feature a silhouette of a man giving a Nazi salute.
In the letter, Waters responds to the allegations by claiming that the Star of David was one of many symbols used in his show, including “the Crucifix, the Crescent and Star, the Hammer and Sickle, the Shell Oil Logo and The McDonald’s Sign, a Dollar Sign and a Mercedes sign.”
Waters points out that the pig has appeared at 193 performances since September 2010, and last week’s was the first complaint. He said “the pig in question represents evil, and more specifically the evil of errant government. We make a gift of this symbol of repression to the audience at the end of every show and the people always do the right thing. They destroy it.”
In his letter, Waters contends that he has “many very close Jewish friends,” including “Simon Wiesenthal’s nephew,” and his two grandsons whose “mother, my daughter in law, is Jewish and so, in consequence, I’m told, are they.”
Perhaps emboldened by his extensive Jewish connections, Waters then launches into an anti-Israel tirade. “In a functioning theocracy it is almost inevitable that the symbol of the religion becomes confused with the symbol of the state, in this case the State of Israel, a state that operates Apartheid both within its own borders and also in the territories it has occupied and colonized since 1967,” Waters charges.
Read Waters’ letter in full, below:
The Algemeiner