US calls Roger Waters performance in Berlin 'deeply offensive to Jewish people'
The Biden administration is weighing in on the controversy over a recent performance by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters in Germany, saying his show in Berlin as ‘deeply offensive to Jewish people’
PremiumThe Biden administration is weighing in on the controversy over a recent performance by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters in Germany, saying his show in Berlin as "deeply offensive to Jewish people."
The US State Department said that Waters has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes" and a concert he gave late last month in Germany “contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust."
Waters was wearing black trench coat with a swastika-like emblem during the performance last month.
Waters rejected the accusations saying “the elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms." He claimed that "attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated."
Sortly after the concert, the Berlin police said they had opened an investigation of Waters on suspicion of incitement over the costume he wore.
Deborah Lipstadt, the US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, called the concert "Holocaust distortion" and amplified a tweet denouncing Waters by the European Commission's coordinator on combating anti-Semitism.
“I wholeheartedly concur with @EUAntisemitism ’s condemnation of Roger Waters and his despicable Holocaust distortion," Lipstadt twitted.
The State Department stood by Lipstadt's comment.
“Special Envoy Lipstadt’s quote-tweet speaks for itself," the department said.
“The concert in question, which took place in Berlin, contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust," the department said. “The artist in question has a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people."
"The artist in question has a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people," the department added.
Images from the May 17 concert showed the famed singer and bass player aiming an imitation machine gun into the audience as he recreated scenes from a film based on Pink Floyd's hit 1979 album "The Wall", a critique of fascism.
Waters said on Twitter the depiction of "an unhinged fascist demagogue" had been a feature of his shows since "The Wall."
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