Roger Waters (Jemal Countess/Getty Images)
Roger Waters has made headlines this year and it’s not for his music. The former Pink Floyd frontman has been making controversial comments about Israel, urging other artists to boycott the country.
While his comments have drawn music industry outrage, the Anti-Defamation League had his back up until recently. According to the Times of Israel, their defense is long but over now. Today (Dec. 12) the ADL have agreed that Waters’ “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” have “seeped into the totality” of his views.
After an interview Waters made with political newsletter Counterpunch where he compared Israeli treatment of the Palestinians to Nazi Germany, the National Director of ADL had enough.
“Judging by his remarks, Roger Waters has absorbed classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and these have now seeped into the totality of his views,” Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the ADL), told The Times of Israel. “His comments about Jews and Israel have gotten progressively worse over time. It started with anti-Israel invective, and has now morphed into conspiratorial anti-Semitism.”
He added: “How sad that a creative genius could become so perverted by his own narrow-minded bigotry.”
When asked by Counterpunch how he feels when artists say mixing arts and politics is wrong, Waters alluded to text that will be featured on his next album. The text is about a grandfather in Northern Ireland going on a quest with his grandchild to find the answer to the question: Why are they killing the children? Waters explained.
“In the song, the child tells his grandpa: ‘Is that it?’ and the grandpa replies ‘No, we cannot leave on that note, give me another note.’ A new song starts and the grandpa makes a speech. He says: ‘We live on a tiny dot in a middle of a lot of f***ing nothing.’ Now, if you’re not interested in any of this, if you’re one of those ‘Roger I love Pink Floyd but I hate your f***ing politics,’ if you believe artists should be mute, emasculated, nodding dogs dangling aimlessly over the dashboard of life, you might be well advised to f*** off to the bar now, because time keeps slipping away.’ That’s my answer to your question.”
Waters’ next album will mark his first rock album since 1992’s Amused to Death.
