Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters was accused of pushing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hatred ahead of his concert in Miami on Thursday night.
Waters, 73, has long been a proponent of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that targets Israel for economic sanctions. The bass player was to perform at the American Airlines Arena as part of a tour of the U.S. and Canada to promote a solo album.
“Your vile messages of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and hatred are not welcome in our community,” said a statement from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation issued before the show.
“Mr. Waters, stop openly calling for support of a cultural boycott of Israel,” it added.
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, Waters has been a frequent target of pro-Israel groups who have worked together to call out his anti-Israel rhetoric.
Last month the Zionist Organization of America addressed major corporations, including AT&T, Wells Fargo, Staples, American Airlines, Verizon and Prudential, that own stadiums and concert venues in the U.S. that form the backdrop for the current tour. In a statement, it said those companies “are tarnishing their reputations by allowing their names to be associated with a vicious anti-Semite who promotes lies about Israel and the Jewish people.”
Waters, who has in the past compared Israel to Nazi Germany, uses bullying tactics to persuade other musicians not to perform in the Jewish state. His most recent target is Radiohead, who are scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv in July. He told the band to “think again” about playing in a country “where a system of apartheid has been imposed on the Palestinian people.”
For their part, Radiohead have ignored Waters, with frontman Thom Yorke telling Rolling Stone magazine it was “deeply distressing” that Waters and other BDS activists “choose to, rather than engage with us personally, throw s**t at us in public.”
“I’ll be totally honest with you: this has been extremely upsetting,” said Yorke to the Rolling Stone interviewer. “There’s an awful lot of people who don’t agree with the BDS movement, including us. I don’t agree with the cultural ban at all, along with J.K. Rowling, Noam Chomsky and a long list of others.”