Berlin, 24.02.2023 – the Jewish association WerteInitiative supports the “Open letter by civil-society organisations concerned with Jewish life on Roger Waters’ concert tour”.
On this, Elio Adler, chairman of WerteInitiative – jüdisch-deutsche Positionen e.V.: “Roger Waters serves up unadulterated antisemitic narratives in his shows. His support for the antisemitic Israel boycott movement and his anti-Israel agitation are obvious.“
Roger Waters is touring several major German cities in May. It is to be expected that Waters’ antisemitic positions will also play a role at his concerts here and that he will put them on display before a mass audience. The city of Frankfurt am Main decided today to have the concert in the Festhalle cancelled.
Adler: “As the first city, Frankfurt is thereby taking the right path. An example that other venues should follow as well.“
Open letter
by civil-society organisations concerned with Jewish life
Wish you’d stay away, Roger Waters!
A broad alliance of organisations is calling for the cancellation of the Roger Waters concerts in Germany and in Berlin.
Antisemitic narratives play a central role in the large-scale events of the musician, who in recent years has made a name for himself above all as a protagonist of anti-Israel agitation.
To state it with all clarity: Waters uses antisemitic symbolism. At his concerts he often has an oversized inflatable pig balloon bearing a Star of David and dollar signs shot down in front of a broad audience.
The current programme “This Is Not A Drill” (“Das ist keine Übung”) is expressly meant to represent Waters’ political programme: “If you’re here because you like Pink Floyd, but you can’t stand Roger Waters’ politics, then fuck off to the bar”, is how visitors were greeted according to concert reports from the USA.
The concert planned in Berlin is thus, by Waters’ own account, to become a gathering for identification with his antisemitically charged hatred of Israel and with his call for a boycott against the people of the Jewish state.
A well-known antisemite, conspiracy theorist and Israel-hater like Roger Waters must not be given a stage anywhere. Not to mention his appeasement of Russia.
For decades Roger Waters has been filling gigantic music halls with a programme peppered with antisemitic narratives and hatred of Israel, demands the discrimination against Jewish-Israeli artists on the basis of their origin and at the same time successfully puts pressure on those of his fellow musicians who want to perform in Israel.
Not to lend any support to his campaigns is itself a contribution to the defence of artistic freedom.
On 24 February 2023 the city of Frankfurt am Main decided to cancel the Roger Waters concert in the Frankfurt Festhalle. That is the right step, which the other venues should take as their model.
No to incitement and hatred. No to contempt for humanity. No to antisemitism: no stage for Roger Waters!
