Jewish groups around the world pile pressure on Bertelsmann to drop Waters

The world’s biggest Jewish organisations have signed an open letter calling on a music group to end its relationship with Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters.

The English musician, 79, is represented by Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), and has made a habit of offending Jews around the world, often appearing to stray beyond his support for Palestinian rights.

Now, a letter coordinated by Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), a non-profit entertainment industry organisation, has attracted the support of 14 of the highest profile Jewish organisations across the developed world.

In it, the signatories took issue with Waters’ performance in Germany in May, when he donned a Nazi-like uniform and compared Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist killed covering the conflict, to Anne Frank.

“We believe that artists, given their massive influence in the world today, have a unique and important responsibility to speak out against bigotry,” said the CCFP signatories.

“Mr. Waters has repeatedly shown that he’s determined to do the opposite – and would instead use his voice, his platform, and his public microphone to fan the flames of hatred.”

The letter has support from the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, B’nai B’rith International, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada, the UK’s Community Security Trust, the Conference of European Rabbis, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), European Jewish Congress, Simon Wiesenthal Center, South African Jewish Board of Deputies, World Jewish Congress, and Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany).

The US State Department has said that Waters’ recent concert “contained imagery deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust” and that he has “a long track record of using antisemitic tropes to denigrate Jewish people”.

Waters has defended his appearance as a fascist demagogue at his concerts, adding that Anne Frank “became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked”.

In a statement, he said he had been the subject of “bad faith attacks from those who want to smear and silence me because they disagree with my political views and moral principles”.

However CCFP director Ari Ingel said Waters “has peddled and promoted antisemitism and leveraged his immense platform to spread his hateful views to millions worldwide”.

Ingel added that the letter “demonstrates the Jewish community’s concern that corporations cannot sit idly by while their business partners promote hate”.