Roger Waters performs in Chicago. (Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP) (Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)
Roger Waters

‘Am Yisrael Chai’: Protester Brandishing Israeli Flag Rushes Stage at Roger Waters Concert in Frankfurt

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Protest comes after Waters drew a comparison between Anne Frank and Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh at concert in Berlin.

By United with Israel staff and JNS

A protester holding an Israeli flag rushed the stage during a concert on Sunday held in Frankfurt by former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters.

Video posted to social media shows members of the crowd chanting “Am Yisrael Chai” (“the nation of Israel lives”) and brandishing Israeli flags, as another audience member manages to get to the stage with an Israeli flag as Waters finishes a song.

Waters, a supporter of the BDS movement against Israel, has called Israel a “racist apartheid regime” and has accused it of “ethnic cleansing.”

The Frankfurt concert was held at the “Festhalle,” a popular concert venue that in the past was used by Nazis for rallies. During Kristallnacht, German Jews were rounded up from the Festhalle and from there sent to concentration camps.

At a concert in Berlin on Wednesday, Waters’ concert featured a large screen comparing the names of Holocaust victim Anne Frank and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed during an exchange of fire between the IDF and terrorists in Jenin. He also dressed up as an SS officer and pretended to fire a machine gun.

Following the concert, Berlin police announced an investigation against Waters.

“The State Security Department at the Berlin State Criminal Police Office has initiated a criminal investigation procedure regarding the suspicion of incitement of the people,” Berlin police chief inspector Martin Halweg told Jewish News, which first reported the investigation.

“The context of the clothing worn is deemed capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace. After the conclusion of the investigation, the case will be forwarded to the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office for legal assessment,” Halweg continued.

Waters responded to news of the investigation on social media, saying that it was politically motivated by those “who want to discredit my name and silence me because they do not agree with my political views and moral principles.”

He added: “The elements of my performance in question are clearly a statement that opposes fascism, injustice and racism in all forms. Attempts to present the elements as something else are disingenuous and motivated by a political agenda.”

Uwe Becker, the state of Hesse’s representative for Jewish life and the fight against antisemitism, and a former mayor of Frankfurt, told Ynet ahead of the Frankfurt conert that Waters was “spreading antisemitism” by comparing Frank’s death to that of Abu Akleh.

“The city of Frankfurt and the state of Hesse in which Frankfurt is located went to court to thwart this concert, but the court decided that an artist’s concert is covered by freedom of art and speech,” he said.

“In my opinion, we see so much antisemitism, Israel-related antisemitism, that this should not happen,” Becker continued. “Antisemitism in this very brutal way of demoralizing and taking away the legitimization of the State of Israel, comparing Israel with the crimes of the Shoah.

“Bringing all those things together relativizes the crime of the Shoah in a way such that I think it should be under review to see if there are any crimes happening while he is performing,” Becker said.

“Antisemitism in my opinion is not art, it is a crime. Even if it is not totally fixed in our rules and in our laws, what we see here is disgusting.”

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