Wife of Pink Floyd Guitarist David Gilmour Claims that Roger Waters is “Anti-Semitic to His Rotten Core”

Wife of Pink Floyd Guitarist David Gilmour Claims that Roger Waters is “Anti-Semitic to His Rotten Core”

Edited by: Fern Sidman

It appears that Roger Waters, the controversial frontman for the rock band Pink Floyd is once again in the news for his extremist political views.

On Tuesday, it was reported that Polly Samson, the wide of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and lyricist for the band has described the Waters as “antisemitic to your rotten core,” according to a report on the Israel National News web site.

Responding to a tweet from Waters in which he mentioned an interview he gave to a German newspaper “against the backdrop of the outrageous and despicable smear campaign by the Israeli lobby to denounce me as an antisemite, which I am not, never have been and never will be” and also a comment from Waters doubling down on his comparison of Israel with Nazi Germany in which he claimed it was “committing genocide,” Samson shot back that Waters was antisemitic to his “rotten core,” the report indicated.

“Sadly Roger Waters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” tweeted Samson, who is also anovelist as well as a lyricist. She said that Waters is, “also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.”

The scathing tweet by Samson, 60, whose father is Jewish, was viewed by over 500,000 users and also shared by Gilmour, who tweeted in agreement with his wife, writing of her post that “every word is demonstrably true,” INN reported.

In response, Waters public relations team released a statement that said: “Roger Waters is aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely. He is currently taking advice as to his position.”

Waters was a founding member of Pink Floyd and left the band in 1985, USA Today reported.  Since then, Waters has been widely condemned as virulenty antisemitic. He’s disparaged Israel on Twitter and flown an inflatable balloon in the shape of a pig decorated with the Star of David at concerts.

In the interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, Waters alleged that he was being targeted “because I lend my voice to the 75 year old fight for equal human rights for all my brothers and sisters in Palestine/Israel.”

INN reported that Waters also said that he would not take back past comparisons of Israel with Nazi Germany because “the Israelis are committing genocide,” according to the UK Jewish News.

In January, politicians in Frankfurt, Germany called for an upcoming Roger Waters concert to be cancelled over the musician’s outspoken support of the BDS movement and for spreading pro-Russian propaganda, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Calls to cancel Waters’ appearance began with Frankfurt Mayor Nargess Eskandari-Grünberg, followed by all the main contenders in the mayoral race also speaking out against the concert, INN reported.

Local CDU political Uwe Becker, who is the antisemitism commissioner for the state of Hesse, called Waters a “bad example of aggressive, Israel-related antisemitism” for the many instances of his attacks on Israel and the Jewish community.

Waters’ vociferous hatred of Israel and his egregious anti-Semitic posture has been developing for decades and with the passage of time his malevolence has grown rapidly.

Back in 2013, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which once defended Waters from accusations of anti-semitism, announced in December of that year that “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” have “seeped into the totality” of Waters’ publicly announced views.

The announcement by the ADL was made in response to an interview at the time in CounterPunch magazine which was conducted with Waters. In the interview, Waters compared the treatment of Palestinians by Israel with the treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany.

“Judging by his remarks, Roger Waters has absorbed classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and these have now seeped into the totality of his views,” former National Director of the ADL, Abe Foxman, told The Times of Israel at the time. “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.”

“How sad that a creative genius could become so perverted by his own narrow-minded bigotry,” Foxman added.

During the CounterPunch interview, Waters reportedly said that, in regard to Palestinians,  that the “parallels with what went on in the ’30s in Germany are so crushingly obvious.” Furthermore, he stated that “there were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinian people being murdered.”

According to Newsradio.com, the questionable comments came when CounterPunch asked Waters how he felt about other artists commenting that “mixing arts and politics is wrong.” Newsradio.com reported that in response, Waters alluded to the fact that this subject would be featured on his upcoming album. He reportedly said “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.”

Specifically speaking about Jews and Israel, he is reported to have said during the CounterPunch interview that “the Jewish lobby is extraordinarily powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock’n roll, as they say.”

While referring to Israel’s “right wing rabbinate,” Waters said “they believe that everybody that is not a Jew is only on earth to serve them and they believe that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human. The parallels with what went on in the 30’s in Germany are so crushingly obvious that it doesn’t surprise me that the movement that both you and I are involved in is growing every day.”

While the ADL came forward with the acknowledgment of Waters’ leaning towards anti-Semitism, the organization also stated that Waters has a long history of using anti-Semitic symbols in his concerts. To be specific, the pig symbol in general comes from the Pink Floyd album “Animals” and the balloons are flown during any rendition of the song “Pigs,” which has an anti-Big Brother, anti-authoritarian tone.

On Wednesday, at the request of Russia, Waters addressed the United Nations Security Council meeting. As a staunch and vocal advocate for Russia’s position in its invasion of Ukraine, Rogers said in an interview last year with Rolling Stone magazine that he believes his name is on a “kill list that is supported by the Ukrainian government.” Rolling Stone reported that in that same conversation, the singer shifted the blame from the ongoing war from Russia to NATO, suggesting that the organization essentially left Putin with no other choice but to invade Ukraine.

He has also indicated in the past that he is in agreement with Putin’s accusation of Nazi influence in Ukraine as the justification for the bloody battle that has left thousands dead.

In his UN address, Waters condemned the for-profit military industrial complex and stressed the devastating toll of war, both on people and the environment, Rolling Stone reported.

Waters condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “illegal,” but also said it was “not unprovoked,” Rolling Stone reported. He added, “So I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms. There, that’s out of the way.”

Rolling Stone also reported that in Waters’ UN address he reflected a pro-Russian bent as he made references to the “arming of the Kyiv regime by third parties.” At one point in his speech Waters spoke of the “possibility of peace in the Ukraine” (emphasis added); the Ukrainian government has long disapproved of calling the country “the Ukraine,” as opposed to just “Ukraine,” as that’s how the country was referred to during the Soviet era. (Waters, in his interview with Rolling Stone, insisted he wasn’t making a political statement by calling it “the Ukraine.”)

Waters claims to be the voice for the voiceless and told the assemblage at the UN: “Thank you for hearing us today, we are many who do not share in the profits of the war industry. We do not willingly raise our sons and daughters to provide fodder for your canons. In our opinion, the only sensible course of action today is to call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine. No ifs, no buts, no ands. Not one more Ukrainian or Russian life is to be spent — they are all precious in our eyes.”

Rolling Stone also reported that in August, Waters called President Joe Biden a “war criminal” during a CNN broadcast and claimed he was directly “fueling the war in the Ukraine.” Then, in September, Waters published an open letter to Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska that targeted the country’s Western weapons source.

Security Council diplomats within the United Nations criticized Waters’ appearance when it was first announced that he would be speaking, according to the Rolling Stone report. “Russian diplomacy used to be serious,” one shared anonymously with Reuters.