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Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has a long-standing Jewish problem that he keeps making worse. True to form, during his current international concert tour, the 79-year-old British musician has shown, yet again, his propensity for antisemitic tropes and an obsessive hatred of the world’s only Jewish state.

Little surprise that at a time of rising antisemitism, many Jews and non-Jews around the world are raising their voices in condemnation of Waters’ latest display of odious conduct. You don’t need a degree in the study of antisemitism to know that his virulent, vitriolic venom targeting Jews and Israel is unadulterated Jew-hatred. Given it’s been part of his repertoire for years, shame on those who continue to treat him as rock star royalty.

As a Jew, how should I feel seeing fans cheer Waters while he trades in Nazi-evocative imagery and persists in his relentless attacks singling out Israel with contempt and baseless accusations of “genocide?” I’m sickened by the sight of Waters being received with such enthusiasm by large crowds at his concerts as if his time-honoured toxic antisemitism, often under the thin veil of ferocious anti-Zionism, doesn’t matter. Why is such hate not met with the same ire as other forms of racism?

In recent performances, in Germany of all places, Waters wore an outfit reminiscent of a Nazi SS officer and maniacally shot a mock machine gun into the crowd. As he’s done previously, he displayed a giant inflatable pig which he links to Jews. In the past, Waters often adorned the animal with a prominent Jewish star and a dollar sign. This time, he decorated it with the logo of an Israeli company.

Continue reading in the Toronto Star

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