Pink Floyd cofounder Roger Waters released a special video response earlier this week to President Donald Trump’s historic declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, with a reading from Palestinian nationalist poet Mahmoud Darwish.
Rogers, a perennial critic of the Jewish state and a staunch supporter of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, recorded the reading of Darwish’s “Penultimate Speech of the Red Indian to the White Man” with Trio Joubran, titling the video “Supremacy – A Response to Trump #JerusalemCapitalofPalestine”.
In the past, Rogers has been the target of criticism and accusations of anti-Semitism over his sometimes outlandish performances aimed at delegitimizing Israel, including a 2013 concert in which he released a giant pig-shaped balloon bearing the Star of David.
In addition, the former Pink Floyd frontman has in the past compared Israel to Nazi Germany, saying in an interview, “The situation in Israel/Palestine, with the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is unacceptable.”
The Simon Weisenthal Center blasted Rogers over the insulting use of Jewish symbols. “By floating a pig balloon stamped with the Star of David at his concert, Roger Waters has moved to the front of the line of anti-Semites,” the group said in a statement.
“Forget Israel-Palestine. Waters deployed a classic disgusting medieval anti-Semitic caricature widely used by both Nazi and Soviet propaganda to incite hatred against Jews,” charged the center’s Associate Dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
In this week’s video response to Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, Rogers and Joubran launch a veiled attack against Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.
“There are the dead and the settlements. The dead and the bulldozers. The dead and the hospitals.”
The final verse of the poem seemingly is aimed at President Trump asking “Where, oh white master, are you taking my people... and yours?”