Two state-funded German television stations have withdrawn their support of Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters ahead of his tour of the country next year.
The move follows complaints about Waters’ ongoing political campaign against the Jewish State of Israel.
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported, Malca Goldstein-Wolf, a Jewish resident of Cologne, wrote to WDR, the regional subsidiary of national broadcaster ARD, highlighting Waters’ support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
“Will WDR actually support the new ‘Do not buy from Jews’? [a Nazi-era slogan] And use state money to do so?” wrote Goldstein-Wolf. Her call to boycott Roger Waters – his concert is set down for June 11, 2018 – came with an online petition that gathered 1,500 votes.
Now state television has joined radio affiliates of the national ARD network and dropped concerts by the 74-year-old Waters in Berlin and Cologne from their schedules next summer “in reaction to anti-Semitism accusations against him”, Berlin and Brandenburg public radio (RBB) said.
RBB, part of the ARD network, said it wanted to send a message to other artists who, heeding the BDS, refused to perform in Israel. Waters joined the movement in 2011.
“Taking a clear position here is an important signal for RBB to the Jewish communities in Berlin and Brandenburg,” RBB director Patricia Schlesinger said in a statement to Reuters.
“The quick and decisive reaction by the broadcasters … is an important signal that rampant antisemitism against Israel has no place in Germany,” said Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
The accusations of anti-Semitism against the British rocker grew after balloons in the shape of a pig adorned in the Star of David were released at Waters’ concerts in 2013 — though he countered that several political and religious symbols had been used.
More recently he compared the Israeli government to Nazi Germany, saying Israel is “the worst regime in the world,” during an hour-long Q&A session led by BDS movement leader Omar Barghouti.
Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.