Roger Waters is a famous British singer, whose visit to Palestine has changed his view of Israel, so he is being pursued by Israeli lobbies and trying hard to eliminate his artistic career by calling for the cancellation of his concerts around the world, and working to discredit him with the famous ready-made accusation: "anti-Semitism."

Who is Roger Waters?

Born in Cambridge in 1943, British artist George Roger Waters showed a passion for music since his childhood, and was interested in sports, especially swimming.

He gained his fame mainly from being the founder of the British classic rock band Pink Floyd, which he founded with Sid Barrett, Nick Mason and Richard Wright in 1965.

The band's debut album was not released until 1967, with the name "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn".

Waters has since been known as one of Britain's most prominent musicians, besides singing he excelled in composing, composing music and playing guitar.

Waters and his band released several albums that were popular around the world, such as "Dark Side of the Moon," "Wish You Were Here," and "Meddle."

After these successes, he became the band's leader and became the main author of their songs, achieving international successes in albums such as "Animals", "The Wall" and "The Final Cut".

Disagreements with the band

The rest of the band members were not happy with Roger Waters, and differences began to appear between them in the eighties, according to the rest of the members, Waters' personality was "dominant", and their ideas were not taken into account.

By 1983, after the release of the song "The Final Cut," Waters had split from the group.

His separation from Pink Floyd was not peaceful, as he filed a lawsuit against the rest of the members through which he tried to prevent them from using the band's name, but the lawsuit failed, and Pink Floyd continued to release songs without Waters.

After the breakup, Waters began his career as a solo singer, and released 3 albums that did not achieve similar success to his albums with "Pink Floyd".

Politics in Waters Songs

Roger Waters was not limited to music, he was also a political activist, and this was reflected in his artistic work, so he wrote a song called "Another Brick in the Wall", which talks about the right of black children to education in South Africa, and opposes the policy of apartheid that prevailed there, and the song was banned in 1980 by the South African government.

In 1992, Waters also released an album called "Amused to Death", which carried several political and social messages, criticizing wars and murder.

In 1990, Waters also produced a musical called The Wall, in which he celebrated the end of the division between East and West Germany after the destruction of the Berlin Wall.

Looking back a bit, Waters' fiercely anti-war stances further explains: His father was killed on the Italian front in 1944, at the start of World War II, when he was just one year old.

His position on Palestine

Roger Waters wrote an article in the Guardian in 2011 expressing support for the Palestinians and rejecting Israel's policy of apartheid.

He said in the article that he had been hired to perform in Tel Aviv, but that Palestinians from a movement calling for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel contacted him and explained to him the violations committed by the Israeli government against Palestinians, and asked him to come to Palestine to see it for himself.

Indeed, Waters visited Jerusalem and Bethlehem under the protection of the United Nations, saw for himself the apartheid wall, and since that day he has decided to side with the Palestinians, refraining from holding parties in Tel Aviv, as this would give legitimacy to the Israeli government.

Waters spoke of Gazans as well, saying they are "effectively imprisoned behind Israel's illegal blockade wall" and described the suffering of undernourished and insecure children.

"In my opinion, all fair-minded people around the world must support the Palestinian cause, because of Israel's abhorrent and cruel control over Palestinians trapped in Gaza, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and its denial of refugee rights to return to their homes," he said.

Besides his personal stance on the Palestinian issue, Waters encouraged fellow musicians to follow suit. For example, in 2013, musician Stevie Wonder was asked to refrain from performing a concert for the IDF.

Accusations of anti-Semitism

Waters' pro-Palestine stance did not go unnoticed, so he was accused of "anti-Semitism" and subjected to systematic campaigns on social media, but he nevertheless remained steadfast in his position.

Accusations of anti-Semitism resurfaced after a controversial show by Waters in Germany in May 2023, in which he wore a uniform similar to that of the Nazi SS, and several names were displayed on screen, including Anne Frank, George Floyd and Shireen Abu Akleh.

It is noteworthy that Anne Frank is a Jewish teenager who was killed during the Holocaust, and her personal memoirs are considered one of the most famous accounts documenting that stage, while George Floyd was killed by the US police, and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by the Israeli occupation forces.

After this presentation, some interpreted his wearing the Nazi uniform as "hate speech" against Jews, and considered the association between the names Anne Frank and Shirin Abu Akleh to have "anti-Semitic" connotations, and thus renewed accusations against Waters.

Some Israeli lobbies even campaigned against him, trying to cancel his concerts in several parts of the world, and succeeded in doing so in Frankfurt, Germany, where a planned concert was canceled on the pretext that he was "considered one of the most prominent and influential anti-Semitists in the world."

Waters said the campaigns against him are led by people who "want to tarnish his image and silence him, because they disagree with him in his political views and moral values."

He added that his presentation in Germany "is nothing but a clear stance against fascism, injustice and fanaticism, in all its forms", and considered that "interpreting the offer as something else is deceptive and politically motivated attempts."

Waters has repeatedly stated that his political stances do not mean anti-Semitism or anti-Jewish people at all; he stands firm against the Israeli government's abuses against Palestinians.

He compared the Israeli government's oppression of the Palestinian people to the actions committed by the Nazis under Adolf Hitler.