Pink Floyd star Roger Waters has suggested a US Jewish billionaire was a “puppet master” influencing the US President Donald Trump in an interview on a Hamas-affiliated news network.
The English musician told the Shehab News Agency that billionaire Sheldon Adelson was a “puppet master” who was “pulling the strings of Donald Trump, [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo, and what’s his name…the ambassador, Greenberg [sic].”
Mr Waters went on to describe Mr Adelson as a “right-wing fascist racist bigot” who “believes that only Jews, only Jewish people, are completely human…and everybody else on Earth is there to serve them.”
He also repeated the claim that the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, which sparked widespread anger and protest, had been done using a technique invented by the Israeli military and taught to the US police by “Israeli experts”.
Musician Roger Waters on Hamas-Affiliated News Agency: Crazy Puppet Master Adelson Has Donald Trump’s Tiny Little Pr*ck in His Pocket; Israelis Teach U.S. Police How to Murder Blacks pic.twitter.com/0JUQuwsvhB
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 21, 2020
Mr Waters characterised Zionism as “an ugly stain” that “needs to be gently removed by us”.
Excerpts from the interview were published Sunday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
In the interview, Mr Waters appears to mistakenly name US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman as “Greenberg”.
The Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt commented: "Roger Waters, who has a long history of anti-Israel activism including supporting the BDS movement, has once again invoked blatantly antisemitic tropes during his recent interview with a Hamas-affiliated TV station.
"Waters’ comments mirror a number of classic and vile antisemitic stereotypes... It's highly unfortunate to see an individual whose early life was marked by important contributions to the world of music continue to devolve into a discredited propagator of antisemitism and anti-Zionism."