Roger Waters: “They’re trying to cancel me like they cancelled Jeremy Corbyn”

Roger Waters reportedly claimed that “They’re trying to cancel me like they cancelled Jeremy Corbyn and Julian Assange” during last night’s concert at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena.

“I will not be cancelled,” he reportedly added.

He reportedly added that the furore was “all coming from Tel Aviv, promise you”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has written to Manchester’s AO Arena and London’s O2 Arena over their hosting of Mr Waters next week. Last week, we wrote to a leading cinema chain calling for it to cancel its screenings of Mr Waters’ film.

On Tuesday, we reported that David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, took to the social media platform Gab where he appeared to defend Mr Waters.

Campaign Against Antisemitism recently launched a petition calling on venues to stop hosting Mr Waters owing to his long history of baiting Jews, which he has now taken to the next level.

You can sign the petition here.

• In the last week, Berlin police have confirmed an investigation after wide disgust at the costume worn by Mr Waters at a 17th May concert, where he compared Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who was murdered during the Holocaust, to a journalist killed in crossfire between terrorists and Israeli security forces last year in the Palestinian Authority.
• In 2022, in an October episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Mr Waters denied being an antisemite, before going on to address a past concert in which he unveiled a balloon pig with a Star of David, alongside other various symbols, emblazoned on its side. He said: “Well, it’s a symbol of an oppressive state. I am lumping you in but it’s not just you.”
• He continued: “But that is just me criticising the policies of your government and I’m afraid the Star of David does represent the nation that is committing the crime of apartheid every day, and murdering Palestinians every day. Men women and children, every single day. So yeah, I did [put the Star of David on the side of a pig], and I’m unapologetic about it.”
• Mr Waters openly criticised the International Definition of Antisemitism, complaining that “It’s not just me…they smear anyone, anyone, who dares to suggest there’s something bad about their policies. So that’s why the [Definition] is so bad, and so dangerous.”
• Taking issue with one of the examples in the Definition, the musician went on to say that the Definition “can’t mean” that the State of Israel should not be criticised for behaving “like people in the past…towards Jews in Northern Europe.” 

According to the Definition, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.”

• In 2021, Mr Waters claimed that antisemitism is a “smear sword wielded at the behest of the Israeli Government”, stating: “The antisemitism smear sword that was wielded at the behest of the Israeli government, [was] specifically aimed at Jeremy Corbyn because he was left wing and he might turn into a political leader on the left in the United Kingdom who would actually stand up for human rights in general but specifically the rights of working people to represent themselves and have unions.”
• In 2020, the musician said that Zionism needs to be “removed”.
• He also said that American leaders are puppets of the Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Mr Waters has also claimed that Israel teaches America how to “murder the blacks”. He later apologised for this latter remark.

Mr Waters is due to perform on several upcoming dates in the United Kingdom and South America, and regularly embarks on major tours across the United States and Europe.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It says something about Roger Waters that he incessantly needs to insist that he is not an antisemite. He has a penchant for breaching the International Definition of Antisemitism, has claimed that antisemitism is used as a ‘smear’, and has a long history of baiting Jews. That record has now even attracted the positive attention of the former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. That might have given any other celebrity some pause.

“That Mr Waters’ latest show includes a visual equation of Israelis to Nazis, which extends his record of making such comparisons, is all the more reason for venues like London’s O2 arena to steer clear of him. Artistic freedom does not justify hate.”