Pink Floyd musician is banned on antisemitism claims
NewsThe owners of Frankfurt’s Festhalle have cancelled a scheduled performance by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd following claims that Waters is an unapologetic antisemite.
One of his stage props is reported to be ‘a balloon in the shape of a pig with a Star of David printed on it alongside a host of corporate logos’.
His former bandmate David Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson, recently tweeted: ‘Sadly, @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also, a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac….’ Gilmour followed up, saying his wife’s statement was ‘demonstrably true’.
Waters has also been cancelled in Poland.
So much for freedom of expression… And no one can excuse what is currently happening in Palestine and Israel. As an Israeli musician, I can tell you that there are tens of thousands of protesters across the country. I it is not antisemitic, how easy, to criticize.
Freedom of expression is alive and well in Germany. But there are limits, and there is no doubt that an apparently openly antisemitic performer is beyond those limits.
Besides, the Festhalle in Frankfurt is partly publicly owned *and* it has a significant role in the holocaust. Two more reasons to not allow an antisemite onto this particular stage.
Would you rather have headlines that the city of Frankfurt allows antisemitic stage props in a building connected to the holocaust?
Freedom of expression does not mean freedom from consequences. Waters is free to say anything he likes. And Frankfurt’s Festhalle is free to not showcase him. And it sounds like Waters’ comments on Jews extend far beyond criticizing Israeli foreign policy.
The spat with Gilmour is longer-lasting, more childish and more vicious than anything within The Beatles.
More costly, too. There’s $½ billion on the table for their back catalogue but, as one bidder put it they “never need an excuse to disagree.”
I agree that not attending his concerts is the best way to show that his voice is unwelcome.
I don’t agree that bullying a promoter to cancel his show OR govt intervention is the right way to eliminate dissenting voices.
I wish all artists and athletes could use their platforms to perform and use their notoriety for political leverage, but it is what it is.
we are talking about German and German gov’t remember
What does he care. He is worth. 310. Million dollars.
may he spend it in hell
Not disagreeing with you at all, merely reacting to the phrase used. That a person HAS the money is not a measure of their WORTH. I wish that sloppy locution “worth” whatever their assets are would go off to die…
He is persona non grata in Poland because of his pro-russian and anti-Ukrainian positions. Of course he has the right to express his opinions but we also have the right not to attend his concerts. So we exercise that right. Gilmour is an incomparably better musician (and he does not pretend to be a prophet Jeremiah or whoever Mr. Waters thinks he is), so he has always been – and will always be – welcome in Poland. Let Waters play concerts in the Kremlin, they will welcome him there.
I take it anti-Semitism is not an issue in Poland…ha ha ha
And a loathsome, rabid apologist for Putin’s close ally, Nicholás Maduro, too. He strenuously resisted the west’s attempts to deliver food and medical aid to the starving, suffering people of Venezuela, all in the name of his sick, uninformed, vapid ideologies. He is a dangerous fool.
(And this is not an invitation for the similarly inclined commentators on this blog to insult the 7.5 million Venezuelans in exile by crawling from under their rocks and giving me lectures on the history of US interventionism in South America. That ship sailed long ago. Waters’ friends in Venezuela – friends, too, of Gustavo Dudamel, it should not be forgotten – demonstrated unequivocally that they were perfectly able to destroy Venezuela without outside assistance.)
The city of Frankfurt is among “the owners of Frankfurt’s Festhalle” and has an duty not to sponsor obvious political messaging.
All Waters needs to do to exercise his freedom-of-speech is to book himself into a non-taxpayer-subsidized concert venue. I’m sure his fans will follow him.