WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is weighing in on the controversy over Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, saying his latest performances in Germany had been antisemitic, an evaluation shared by many in Israel and the pro-Israel neighborhood.
The State Division stated Tuesday that Waters has “a long monitor document of utilizing antisemitic tropes” and a live performance he gave late final month in Germany “contained imagery that’s deeply offensive to Jewish individuals and minimized the Holocaust.”
The feedback got here in a written response to a query posed at Monday’s State Division press briefing about whether or not the administration agreed with criticism of Rogers from the U.S. particular envoy to fight antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt.
“Particular Envoy Lipstadt’s quote-tweet speaks for itself,” the division stated.
“The live performance in query, which befell in Berlin, contained imagery that’s deeply offensive to Jewish individuals and minimized the Holocaust,” the division stated. “The artist in query has a long monitor document of utilizing antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish individuals.”
In a Could 24 tweet after the live performance in Berlin, throughout which Waters appeared on stage in a dressing up reminiscent of Nazi-era Germany, Lipstadt denounced the musician by echoing feedback from EU antisemitism envoy Katharina von Schnurbein, who’s German.
“I wholeheartedly concur with @EUAntisemitism ’s condemnation of Roger Waters and his despicable Holocaust distortion,” Lipstadt wrote in reply to a tweet from von Schnurbein.
Von Schnurbein had taken problem with Waters’ efficiency in Berlin in addition to his earlier feedback associated to Israel and the Holocaust.
“I’m sick & disgusted by Roger Waters’ obsession to belittle and trivialize the Shoah & the sarcastic approach in which he delights in trampling on the victims, systematically murdered by the Nazis,” von Schnurbein wrote. “In Germany. Sufficient is sufficient.”
Shortly after the live performance, police in Berlin stated that they had opened an investigation of Waters on suspicion of incitement over the costume he wore.
Photos on social media confirmed Waters firing an imitation machine gun whereas dressed in a long black coat with a pink armband. Police confirmed that the costume may represent a glorification, justification or approval of Nazi rule and subsequently a disturbance of the general public peace.
Waters rejected these accusations in an announcement on Fb and Instagram, saying “the weather of my efficiency which were questioned are fairly clearly an announcement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its varieties.”
He claimed that ”makes an attempt to painting these components as one thing else are disingenuous and politically motivated.” Waters has additionally drawn the ire of the pro-Israel neighborhood for his outspoken help of the BDS motion, which requires boycotts and sanctions in opposition to Israel.