Now Roger Waters is Pink Floyd, Right?

Editor's Caveat: The Roger Waters Controversy

Cool Media acknowledges Roger Waters' foundational role in Pink Floyd and the artistic power of his solo work. However, responsible music journalism requires readers to be informed of serious ongoing controversies surrounding him that extend well beyond music.
The Berlin Incident (May 2023)

During his This Is Not a Drill tour, Waters performed in Berlin wearing a long black leather overcoat with a red armband, dark glasses, and an imitation machine gun — attire Berlin police confirmed "resembles the clothing of an SS officer." Authorities opened a formal investigation on suspicion of incitement, citing that the costume's context "could constitute a glorification, justification or approval of Nazi rule and therefore a disturbance of the public peace." The case was subsequently referred to Berlin prosecutors to determine whether to pursue charges.

Waters maintains the costume is a satirical character. He has stated that "the depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1980," and that attempts to portray those elements as anything other than anti-fascist were "disingenuous and politically motivated." The armband features crossed hammers — not a swastika — an image drawn directly from The Wall that has nonetheless been appropriated by racist skinhead groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Anne Frank and the Holocaust Relativization Charge

Waters also projected the name of Holocaust victim Anne Frank juxtaposed with Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh — identified on screen as having been killed "for being Palestinian" — which Jewish advocacy groups contend equates Israel's actions with the Nazi death camps. The Israeli Foreign Ministry publicly accused Waters of relativizing the Holocaust. Germany's official commissioner on antisemitism called for him to be held accountable.

Waters' Claim of Legal Vindication — and Its Limits

Waters opened his Berlin concerts with on-screen text stating, "A court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an antisemite." This claim misrepresented the ruling — the Frankfurt Administrative Court granted only an emergency request allowing him to perform, and made no ruling whatsoever on the antisemitism question itself.
A Pattern of Controversy: The ADL Record

The Anti-Defamation League has documented a substantial record of Waters' statements. In April 2024, Waters publicly labeled Zionism a "death cult" and "genocidal." In a 2022 interview, he claimed Israel believes Jews are "superior to everybody else on the planet." He has repeatedly compared Israeli government policies to those of Nazi Germany and has referred to Zionists using the term "cabal."
Dropped by His Music Publisher
In early 2024, music rights company BMG severed ties with Waters over his inflammatory remarks about Israel, Ukraine, and the United States. The U.S. State Department stated that Waters had "a long track record of using antisemitic tropes" and that his German concerts "contained imagery that is deeply offensive to Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust."

UK High Court Defamation Ruling (February 2025)

A London High Court found that statements Waters made on Al Jazeera — accusing documentary filmmaker John Ware of "cheerleading the genocide of Palestinians" and acting as a "Zionist mouthpiece" — were defamatory statements of fact, not protected opinion. Justice Jennifer Eady ruled Waters was blocked from claiming his assertions were merely opinion, advancing the lawsuit toward trial.
Most Recent: Possible UK Prosecution (July 2025)
In July 2025, Waters publicly declared support for Palestine Action — a group the UK Parliament had just designated a terrorist organization — saying on video, "I am Spartacus." The Campaign Against Antisemitism subsequently stated it was reviewing the post, noting that expressing support for a proscribed organization is a criminal offense under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Waters' Defense

Waters has consistently denied all accusations of antisemitism, citing his father's death fighting Nazi Germany in World War II as evidence that the accusations are particularly offensive to him. He maintains that accusations against him amount to a "despicable smear campaign" orchestrated to silence his advocacy for Palestinian human rights.
A Note on His Former Bandmates
David Gilmour publicly endorsed a statement — penned by his wife, lyricist Polly Samson — calling Waters "antisemitic to your rotten core," and additionally characterizing him as "a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac." These are serious charges from someone with decades of close personal knowledge.

A Final Word on Speech, Criticism, and the Line That Actually Matters

In any honest accounting of the Roger Waters antisemitism controversy, a foundational legal and moral distinction must be made — one that mainstream coverage has largely failed to draw. Protected speech and legitimate political criticism of a government and its military apparatus are not hate speech. Documenting the IDF's conduct in Gaza, questioning Israeli government policy, or depicting fascism on a concert stage are categorically different from the pro-Nazi, ethnoreligiously targeted hatred that defines genuine antisemitism. Roger Waters is, first and foremost, an artist whose entire creative canon — from The Wall to his solo work — has been animated by a sustained, decades-long opposition to fascism in all its forms. The characters he inhabits on stage are not expressions of his personal ideology; they are theatrical indictments of authoritarianism, a tradition rooted in something deeply personal — his father's death fighting Nazi Germany in World War II. That biographical and artistic context does not render every statement Waters has made beyond scrutiny, and our caveat above addresses those distinctions honestly. But conflating an artist's anti-fascist theater with Nazi sympathy, or equating criticism of a government's military conduct with hatred of a people, is not journalism — it is a category error that does real damage to the very concept of protected political speech, and ultimately makes it harder, not easier, to identify and confront actual antisemitism when it appears.

Cool Media does not render a verdict on Roger Waters' personal beliefs. We present documented facts and verified legal proceedings. Readers are encouraged to weigh this context alongside the music.

Sources: Berlin Police (AP/AFP, May 2023), ADL Fact Sheet (updated May 2024), Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, UK High Court ruling (Ware v. Waters, February 2025), Campaign Against Antisemitism (July 2025).