Rock musician Roger Waters has compared Israel’s policies towards Palestinians to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.
In an interview with the left-wing American online magazine, Counterpunch, the former Pink Floyd front-man said: “The parallels with what went on in the ’30s in Germany are so crushingly obvious”.
He added that it was no surprise that the movement advocating a boycott of Israel, of which Mr Waters is a member, was growing.
The musician also described the Israeli rabbinate as “bizarre” and accused rabbis of believing that Palestinians and other Arabs in the Middle East were “sub-human”.
Mr Waters went on to repeat a number of standard antisemitic tropes, referring to the “Jewish lobby” as “extraordinarily powerful” and implying that there was a link between American Jews and the events of 9/11.
His remarks prompted a strong response from the Community Security Trust, the body which monitors anti-Jewish activity in the UK.
A spokesman said that Mr Waters’s comments “echo the language of antisemitism”. He added that Mr Waters was “living proof of how easily people who pursue extreme anti-Israel politics can drift into antisemitic statements and ideas.”
Bicom, the UK-based Israel advocacy organisation, was also quick to respond to the remarks in the interview with Mr Waters.
Chief executive Dermot Kehoe said: “The statements by Roger Waters calling for a cultural boycott of Israel and comparing the country to Nazi Germany are repugnant and fly in the face of both the reality in Israel today and the ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians."
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, described the comments as “venomous” and said that they confirmed Mr Waters’ status as “one of the most virulent haters of the Jewish state anywhere”.
Earlier this year, Mr Waters was criticised for displaying an inflatable pig adorned with a star of David at his concerts.
