A new documentary on Roger Waters, made in the UK by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, has just been released. It includes many examples of his antisemitic statements over the years, and testimony about his antisemitic words and behavior by an esteemed music producer, Bob Ezrin, who worked closely with Waters over many years,, and by Waters’ former saxophonist, Norbert Stachel; both are Jewish, and both remembered the delight Waters took in making anti-Jewish slurs in their presence.
You can now watch the new documentary on Waters and antisemitism here. More on the 37-minute documentary can be found here: “Roger Waters defends using anti-Jewish slur after film exposes antisemitic comments,” Times of Israel, September 30, 2023:
Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters on Friday defended his use of an anti-Jewish slur, after a documentary film said he had proposed writing the racist term on an inflatable pig used as a concert prop.
The 37-minute film, titled “The Dark Side of Roger Waters,” was released by the UK-based advocacy group Campaign Against Antisemitism on Wednesday [September 27].
The filmmakers interviewed Waters’ former bandmates and staffers, who recounted anti-Jewish rhetoric from the rock star.
The documentary also revealed a 2010 email in which Waters asked his crew if they could add antisemitic tropes to a stage prop for his concert tour.
“Hey Guys, Who’s going to make [prepare the] pig?” Rogers wrote in the email, referring to a large inflatable pig that drifts over the audience at his concerts. Waters said he “imagined” the pig plastered with slogans including “dirty kyke,” a deeply offensive, racist term for Jewish people.
He also suggested writing dollar signs, “follow the money,” “scum,” and Stars of David on the pig, among other slogans and symbols, according to the film.
In a Friday statement posted to his website and shared on X, Waters appeared to confirm that the email was genuine, and did not apologize for using the term.
In the documentary, again and again we see Waters, staring manically into the camera, insisting that “I am not an antisemite.” Of course not. Nothing says “I am not an antisemite” like plastering on an inflatable pig balloon such words and symbols as “kyke” [sic], “scum,” “follow the money,” Stars of David, and dollar signs. Why do some people choose to doubt him when he assures them, over and over, that “I am not an antisemite”?
“The offensive words I referenced in quotes in an email 13 years ago, were my brainstorming ideas on how to make the evils and horrors of fascism and extremism apparent and shocking to a generation that may not fully appreciate the ever-present threat,” Waters said. “They are not the manifestation of any underlying bigotry as the film suggests. Quite the opposite.”
“Quite the opposite”? So such words as “kyke” and ”scum,” placed next to symbols like “Stars of David” and “dollar signs,” are apparently meant to express a denunciation of antisemitism, rather than its endorsement? How does the word “kyke” or the “Star-of-David” symbol, stuck on an inflatable pig, make “the evils of fascism and extremism” apparent? A man of mysterious meanings, is this Roger “I-Am-Not-An-Antisemite” Waters.
Several years after the email [in 2010, when he asked his staff for suggestions as to what he should put on his pig] he floated that pig, bearing a Star of David and symbols of dictatorial regimes over the audience during a concert in Belgium.
The filmmakers interviewed Norbert Stachel, Waters’ former saxophonist, and Bob Ezrin, a renowned music producer who worked with Pink Floyd on its landmark 1979 album, The Wall.
Stachel said Waters had mocked his grandmother who died in the Holocaust as a “Polish Jewish peasant,” and rejected vegetarian dishes in a restaurant [Lebanese, as it happens] as “Jew food.”
Ezrin claimed that Waters once sang him an improvised tune about Waters’ then-agent Bryan Morrison, which concluded with the line, “Morri is a f**king Jew.”…
So there are wildly differing views of Roger Waters. Everyone who has known him for many years — Ezrin, Stachel, Polly Samson — has no doubt that he is an obsessive antisemite. Roger Waters, on the other hand, believes he is being deliberately misrepresented by a mysterious “Jewish lobby” that “wants to destroy” him. Roger Waters assures us that “I am not an antisemite.”
Is Roger Waters accurately described by Polly Samson in her celebrated tweet: “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. Enough of your nonsense”? Or is he, as Roger Waters himself claims, “quite the opposite” of an antisemite? You be the judge.
Bexarkat says
One very sad note is the Jewish moguls in the entertainment industry will not step up and confront him.
cornelius says
Good stuff Hugh.
Waters is execrable….a trainwreck of grotesquely twisted values.
gravenimage says
Good to see you posting again, Cornelius.
cornelius says
Hi Graven. Sorry I missed your nod. Hope all is well.
Hudders. says
It’s no secret that Water’s holds & has held/promoted such views for some time now.
I hope the film gets a wide audience & people may be encouraged not to drink from his polluted stream.
gravenimage says
+1
Gerard says
Too late, unfortunately. He’s practically a billionaire. I don’t know why, as usual, it’s taken so long for someone on the left to be held accountable for their actions.
bill says
Waters is a sick personality. The best thing is to ignore him, and boycott his concerts.
Karl says
Nice article, but it’s Bob Ezrin, not Ezdin as you wrote twice in your article.
gravenimage says
Thanks for pointing that out, Karl. Fixed!
gravenimage says
Roger Waters, Again
…………,
Just appaling visous hatred of Jewish people. Thanks to Hugh FItzgerald for this article.