ADL rips Pink Floyd’s Waters on ‘anti-Semitic’ imagery

During performances of "Goodybye Blue Sky," Water uses "imagery long associated with stereotypes about Jews and money" organization says.

By JTA
Roger Waters 311 (photo credit: Associated Press)
Roger Waters 311
(photo credit: Associated Press)
NEW YORK - The Anti-Defamation League on Wednesday slammed Pink Floyd's Roger Waters for using what the organization said was anti-Semitic imagery.
Waters during performances of "Goodbye Blue Sky" on his 2010-11 "The Wall Live" tour, which targets Israel's West Bank security fence, is using imagery long associated with stereotypes about Jews and money, the ADL said.
RELATED:Tear down the wall, even if it protects youOrchestrated 'Wall'
An animated scene projects images of planes dropping bombs in the shape of Jewish Stars of David followed by dollar signs, the organization said.
ADL National Director Abraham Foxman in a statement called the juxtaposition "outrageous."
"While [Rogers] insists that his intent was to criticize Israel's West Bank security fence, the use of such imagery in a concert setting seems to leave the message open to interpretation, and the meaning could easily be misunderstood as a comment about Jews and money," Foxman said in the statement.
"Of course Waters has every right to express his political views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through his music and stagecraft. However, the images he has chosen, when put together in the same sequence, cross a line into anti-Semitism."
"We wish that Waters had chosen some other way to convey his political views without playing into and dredging up the worst age-old anti-Semitic stereotype about Jews and their supposed obsession with making money," Foxman added.


Related Tags
Roger Waters