(Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)
Roger Waters

Brave advocates from the End Jew Hatred organization recently spread awareness of Roger Waters’ antisemitism outside the singer’s Atlanta concert and were met with a mix of gratitude and threatening responses.

By United with Israel Staff

While former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters’ star may have faded long ago in the music world, he has remained in the press due to his increasingly bizarre tirades, falsely accusing the Jewish state of horrific crimes against humanity and promoting antisemitic conspiracies.

Waters not only peddles his bigotry on Iranian media outlets and other state-sponsored propaganda sources, such as Qatar’s Al-Jazeera network, he has also infused his concerts with antisemitic messages, including launching an inflatable pig with a Star of David in the past.

When Waters recently took his show on the road to Atlanta, Georgia, an organization called End Jew Hatred (EJH) stepped up and protested his antisemitism outside the venue. While some concertgoers expressed appreciation for the information about Waters’ antisemitic history, others actually spewed hateful comments at the protesters.

“It was eye-opening to see how many people were unaware of Waters’s public antisemitic stance,” said Cheryl Dorchinsky, the Director of Community Engagement for End Jew Hatred. “Our presence made a difference.”

Dorchinsky stood outside the venue in Atlanta, providing information to concertgoers.

“There were people who genuinely seemed to care and want to be educated. They thanked us for being there and sharing. Then there were the Jew-haters. Nothing that could be shared would lessen that hate. I think that sums up what I see daily. We need to educate and stand in solidarity,” she told United with Israel in a recent interview.

Dorchinsky added, “Waters is a notorious Jew-hater whose unhinged rants have spread hatred and bigotry around the world. I believe people need to understand what they are supporting when they pay to see him.”

In addition to people hollering “f*** the Jews” a few “yelled that they loved Palestinians” in Dorchinsky’s face.

“I love all humanity. I do not understand why they feel their love for one minority should justify hate for another,” she commented.

Dorchinsky noted that EJH’s presence at the Waters concert prompted some people to follow up after and join the group, which describes itself as “a grassroots movement centering on Jewish liberation from all forms of oppression and discrimination” that works “to eliminate Jew hatred from Western culture through peaceful direct action and education.”

EJH also “reject[s] partisan political affiliations and take[s] no positions on issues unrelated to Jew hatred and its eradication.”

Waters’ Vile Brand of Jew Hatred

In July, Waters called former prime minister Golda Meir “a lying piece of sh*t” during a speech to to students at Montreal’s McGill University.

The former Pink Floyd front-man was giving a webinar as part of an event organized by a number of pro-Palestinian campus groups.

In 2020, Waters gave an interview to the Hamas terror group’s TV channel, calling Zionism a “stain” and accusing a prominent Jewish philanthropist of being a “crazy puppet master” with “Donald Trump’s pr**k in his pocket.”

That year, Major League Baseball pulled its sponsorship of Waters’ North American tour based on the singer’s history of incendiary statements. In 2019, a Washington, DC suburb also put off showing an anti-Israel film narrated by Waters.

In addition to his abject Jew-hatred and lies about Israel, Waters has also defended the military aggression of Russia and China. While the former invaded Ukraine this year, causing what many have deemed the worst refugee crisis since World War II, the latter persecutes ethnic minorities and has threatened war over Taiwan’s independence.

In 2018, Waters promoted “Russian propaganda” and claimed that a rescue organization operating in Syria was “fake” and encouraged terrorists, The Jerusalem Post reported at the time. Waters appeared to defend Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who has committed horrific atrocities against his own people, including allegedly unleashing chemical weapons on local populations.

With positions such as these, Waters appears more than willing to consistently land squarely on the wrong side of history.

Thankfully, organizations such as End Jew Hatred don’t let Waters off the hook for spreading lies and division.