In defence of Roger Waters – attempts to silence a dissenting artist must not go unchallenged

The defamatory allegations of antisemitism levelled at Pink Floyd musician, singer and songwriter Roger Waters are an attempt to shut down concerts in his worldwide “This Is Not a Drill” tour. They are the latest salvoes in an unscrupulous campaign to deny artists noted for their advocacy of the rights of Palestinians their public platform and voice. Real antisemitism must be called out, wherever and by whoever it is expressed. But what we are seeing here, once again, is pro-Israel individuals and groups denouncing and demonising solidarity with Palestinians as if it were incitement to hatred of Jews, entirely regardless of the facts.

As writer Alex Nunns has shown in an illuminating Twitter thread, accusations that an inflatable pig emblazoned with a Star of David was part of the show at concerts in Germany on May 17 and 18 are straight-forwardly untrue. There was no Star of David on display in Berlin, a fact which can be ascertained simply by viewing any of the many YouTube videos available online. The images peddled on social media to suggest otherwise date back to a show in 2013 (when the familiar Pink Floyd floating pig carried symbols of Christianity and Islam too, as well as Big Oil and other exploitative institutions). And yet Christian Wakeford MP (a recent defector to Labour from the Conservatives) used it to justify a demand that Waters be banned from performing in Manchester on June 10. Wakeford was quoted repeatedly, and without contradiction, by the BBC and by other media. Simon Myerson KC, a leading light in UK Lawyers for Israel, cited the same non-existent image in his tweet denouncing planned UK venues as “organisations making money from Jewish distress.”

Such disregard for factual accuracy, combined with a chilling enthusiasm for silencing an artist with dissenting views, must not go unchallenged. How many times does it have to be repeated that freedom of expression is meaningless unless applied to opinions that are unpalatable, or even shocking and upsetting, to the mainstream? To quote George Orwell: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

Waters has answered his detractors in a measured statement saying: “The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms.”

The wave of attacks on him demonstrates not only the predilection of bad faith actors for peddling falsehoods. It is also a case study in distorted interpretation of words and images actually used. Thus displaying Anne Frank’s name, as one of a number of figures deserving to be remembered as victims of violence and oppression, is condemned on Israel’s official Twitter account as “desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.”

Waters’ onstage representation of a sinister figure obviously intended as an outrageous example of fascist aggression, is being twisted to charge him with glorifying Nazism!

We can celebrate the fact that a German court in April overruled the Frankfurt municipality’s attempt to ban Waters’ performance in the city before it occurred. It took place on May 28, but his detractors are once again resorting to lawfare, threatening to charge him with “approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime.”

As Roger Waters says in his statement, he is being subjected to “attacks from those who want to smear and silence me because they disagree with my political views”.

The attacks on Roger Waters are part of a pattern. They are the latest of what appear to be coordinated  pile-ons against prominent cultural figures who speak uncomfortable facts about Israel and Palestine – such as rapper Lowkey and filmmaker Ken Loach among others. Those who care about freedom of both artistic and political expression should stand in solidarity with Roger Waters.