Pink Floyd star falls foul of Gerald Ronson
The hostilities between Roger Waters and the Jewish community has intensified with Gerald Ronson accusing the co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd of being anti-Semitic.At a dinner of the Community Security Trust at the Grosvenor House Hotel attended by Ed Miliband, Dominic Grieve, Ed Balls and Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi, Ronson, the charity’s chairman, made withering reference to the rock star. “You may remember Roger Waters from the rock band Pink Floyd,” he said. “Nowadays, at his concerts, he has a giant inflatable pig with a huge Star of David scrawled across it.”
To scornful laughter from his audience, he added: “But, he insists that he is only anti-Israel, and is not, of course, anti-Semitic.” Ronson was referring to an inflatable pig, stamped with the Star of David, that Waters, a vociferous champion of Palestine, floated during a concert in Brussels last year.
As loud as the protests about the stunt were, he later compared the Israeli government to the Nazis. “There were many that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on, from 1933 until 1946,” he said. “So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinian people being murdered.” A spokesman for Waters insisted that he was not “anti-Semitic,” but simply opposed to the policies of the Israeli government.
Miliband’s keynote speech was, by the way, politely applauded, although previous speakers, such as David Cameron and Theresa May, received standing ovations.
Source: The Telegraph
