Pink Floyd's Roger Waters is under fire from the Anti-Defamation League for the use of a Jewish symbol in his new stage show. During each performance of Goodbye Blue Sky, Stars of David and dollar signs are among the symbols dropped like bombs from aeroplanes.
"Of course, Waters has every right to express his political views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through his music and stagecraft," said the League's director, Abe Foxman. "However, the images he has chosen, when put together in the same sequence, cross a line into antisemitism ... We wish Waters had chosen some other way to convey his political views without playing into and dredging up the worst age-old antisemitic stereotype about Jews and their supposed obsession with making money."
The sequence, which comes as part of Waters' new The Wall Live tour, does not just include Jewish symbols. Although dollar signs are directly followed by Stars of David, crosses, Islam's crescent moon, and logos for Shell and Mercedes are among the bombers' payloads. You can view the stage projections in a YouTube video here.
Waters' partner, Laurie Durning, rejected claims of antisemitism. "Since this tour started on 15 September, we've had dozens and dozens of reviews and over 120,000 audience members and I've never heard anyone interpret the show in [this] way," she told the New York Post. "Of course it's most definitely because he hasn't actually seen it."
"This show is unapologetically anti-war," she continued, "and we would really like to put a quick end to any possible rumours of it being in any way negative towards any group of people. It absolutely does not call up any 'antisemitic stereotypes'."
