Roger Waters will be allowed to play a concert in Frankfurt, Germany at the end of May, after an administrative court ruled against local officials who had tried to cancel the concert.
According to German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, neither the city of Frankfurt, nor the German state of Hesse had the right to cancel Waters’ concert. Frankfurt officials had tried to block the show over Waters’ alleged antisemitism, which has been tied to his criticism of Israel and his support of Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Waters has repeatedly rejected the assertion that these positions make him antisemitic, saying his problems are with Israel, not Jewish people. In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, he said, “I’m absolutely not antisemitic, absolutely not. That hasn’t stopped all the assholes trying to smear me with being an antisemite.”
When Frankfurt officials first announced the concert cancellation back in February, the city issued a statement criticizing Waters’ “persistent anti-Israel behavior” and calling him “one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world.” There were also objections to the choice of venue for the concert, Festhalle, from which about 3,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps after Kristallnacht (the city of Frankfurt is a partial owner of the concert hall).
Along with Waters’ support for Palestine and BDS, a particular point of concern was his use of an inflatable pig in his concerts, emblazoned with the Star of David along with other corporate and religious symbols.
In Germany, displaying Nazi symbols and memorabilia is against the law. The German court acknowledged that while Waters’ concert use of “symbolism manifestly based on that of the National Socialist regime” (via The Guardian) was in poor taste, it should be “viewed as a work of art,” and that there wasn’t enough grounds to fully ban the performance.
A spokesperson elaborated further, saying, “It is not for the court to pass judgment on this.” They added that Waters’ performance “did not glorify or relativize the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology.”
A rep for Waters did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment. Local officials will have the opportunity to appeal the court’s decision.
Waters’ stance on Israel and its occupation of Palestine is one of many geopolitical issues he’s come under fire for in recent years (the other big one lately being his pro-Russia leanings in regard to the war in Ukraine). For instance, in his interview with Rolling Stone last year, Waters said he did not accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, and argued, “Saying Israel does not have a right to exist as an apartheid state, any more than South Africa did or anywhere else would, is not antisemitic.”
Waters then criticized Israel for being “a supremacist, settler colonialist project that operates a system of apartheid.” When pressed on his use of “settler,” considering Jewish people do have a long history in the region, Waters replied, “Those people are not from there. They are not the descendants of indigenous people who’ve ever lived there.”