Roger Waters is “a conspiracist crank promoting racist slurs against Syrian first responders,” a professor said of his support of the murderous Assad.
By: The Tower
Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters, a vocal anti-Israel activist and advocate of boycotts of Israel, came under heavy criticism for promoting “Russian propaganda” after asserting that White Helmets rescue organization, which operates in Syria, were “fake” and encouraged terrorists, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday.
In a video posted on social media, Waters spoke of an audience member who wanted to come up on stage and speak about the chemical weapons that had been used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad against civilians earlier this month in the Damascus suburb of Douma, an attack which killed some 200 civilians and affected another 1,000 others.
“He is one voice, I personally think he is entirely wrong, I believe the organization that he purports to represent and who he supports, the White Helmets, are a fake organization that is creating propaganda for jihadists and terrorists, that’s what I believe,” Waters asserted.
He also warned that listening to the “propaganda of the White Helmets and others we would be encouraged to encourage our governments to go and start dropping bombs on people in Syria.”
A website, The New Arab, noted that “Russia, one of the main backers of the Syrian regime, has claimed the attack was faked by the White Helmets – on orders from the British government.” Russia also has denied that the attack had even taken place.
Shortly after the concert, the US, United Kingdom, and France launched a coordinated attack against several chemical weapons installations located inside Syria, in retaliation for the chemical attack on civilians.
Idrees Ahmad, a professor in Scotland’s Stirling University and a signatory of a letter in February calling on the world to end the destruction in Syria, called Waters “a conspiracist crank promoting racist slurs against Syrian first responders.”
Janine DiGiovanni, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, accused Waters of “promoting Putin’s propaganda.”
Waters is notoriously anti-Israel and, some say, an anti-Semite. He regularly utilizes his concerts to blast the Jewish State and promote actions against it.
He is known for pressuring other artists from performing in Israel. Most like Nick Cave of the Bad Seeds, defy the pressure. Cave said of performing in Israel last year, “It suddenly became very important to make a stand, to me, against those people who are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians and to silence musicians.”
Acclaimed filmmaker Ian Halperin, who produced a documentary about Water’s campaign to isolate Israel last year, characterized the musician’s efforts to boycott Israel as “anti-Semitic,” and described the efforts as “deplorable, baseless and unfounded.”