Roger Waters took center stage at his concert in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday and was soon met by Jewish protesters waving the Israeli flag and singing Am Israel Chai (the people of Israel live).
A video posted on social media by user Jewish Defense Network shows the protesters challenging the former Pink Floyd front man as they stormed onto the stage.
The video shows one protester rushing forward with an Israeli flag as security guards rush to stop him.
Meanwhile, in the audience, a group of spectators raise Israeli flags and sing:
JEWS TEAR APART WATERS: ISRAEL FLAG-WAIVERS STORM STAGE AT ROGER WATERS FRANKFURT SHOW // In the midst of @rogerwaters‘ controversial tour through Germany, a group of pro-Israel protesters made a statement that couldn’t be ignored. /1 pic.twitter.com/BoSkpDW9Yr
— Jewish Defense Network (@JewDefense) May 28, 2023
The protest followed a week of controversy for the singer, as Breitbart London reported.
Waters mounted the Mercedes-Benz Arena stage in Berlin on May 17 and 18 clad in a long black leather coat with a red armband with two hammers fashioned into an “X,” black gloves, and a black suit and tie, and carrying a machine gun replica.
As the London report noted, the inflammatory uniform bore a striking similarity to Nazi regalia and prompted German authorities to start investigating the rocker on charges of “suspected incitement” for wearing Nazi-like imagery.
Other stage decorations included an inflated pig bearing the Nazi-inspired logo, a Star of David, and banners evoking the Third Reich-styled imagery, StereoGum reported.
The response from Israel was swift and to the point:
Good morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/4tcrV6f8mt
— Israel ישראל 🇱 (@Israel) May 24, 2023
This was not the first time Waters has courted controversy with Israel and Jewish faithful.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this year he was publicly accused of being an antisemitic Putin apologist.
In 2017 a petition was launched in Cologne, Germany, asking the regional public broadcaster WDR to drop support for Waters’ “Us + Them” concert on the grounds of his previous expressions of antisemitism.
“I do not want to resign myself to the new hatred of Jews here, I’m sick of it,” said Malca Goldstein-Wolf in an interview with newspaper Bild. Her call to boycott Waters – his concert was set down for June 11, 2018 – came with a petition signed by over 1,300 people, according to the newspaper.
Pro-Israel supporter Paul Antey waves the Israeli flag in protest against what he says is the antisemite political beliefs of artist Roger Waters as he performs on stage during the third day of the Desert Trip music festival at Indio, California on October 9, 2016. (MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
The accusations of antisemitism against the British rocker first appeared 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 Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement leader Omar Barghouti.