Roger Waters, more than just another brick in the wall
The Israeli regime and its aggressive apologists have plumbed new depths in the ongoing weaponization of anti-semitism by trying to de-platform the legendary musician, Roger Waters.
The fabricated accusations against Waters were initiated by the Zionist entity itself following one of his concerts in Berlin. But the acquiescent corporate media, and the docile political class, just accepted the lie from Tel Aviv without bothering to check its veracity.
We'll be discussing the implications and possible repercussions of this latest Zionist scam after looking into the way in which this manufactured outrage picked up a head of steam.
The Zionist lobby's campaign against Pink Floyd founder and singer Roger Waters has intensified. This time it started directly with the official Twitter account for the Zionist entity.
The lie began when Israel sent a tweet wishing a: "Good morning to everyone but Roger Waters who spend the evening in Berlin. Yes, Berlin! Desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust".
But of course, quite the opposite was true. Waters had sought to honor the memory of Anne Frank, amongst others, in his show, but it turns out, that was exactly what the Zionists really took issue with.
Danny Danon, Chairman of Netanyahu's Likud party then tweeted: "at a Berlin concert, Roger Waters compared Anne Frank to Shereen Abu Akleh. Water seeks to compare Israel to the Nazis. He is disgracefully one of the biggest Jew haters of our time".
Adding to this high profile pile up came Deborah Lipstadt, a recently appointed US Special Envoy for combating antisemitism. She tweeted that she supported an EU official's condemnation of Waters and that he was responsible for "despicable Holocaust distortion".
This naked attempt to de-contextualize the content of his last show and whip up a social media storm then began to reveal its aim; deplatforming the Pink Floyd figure from future shows.
The insufferable lobby group, the Board of Deputies , which has a close working relationship with the Israeli embassy, then entered the fray. The statement by the board of deputies lamented that it was very concerning that someone with a history of such comments will shortly be appearing at venues around the country.
The aim was to deplatform Waters from his UK shows, the instrument in Parliament would be MP Christian Wakeford, a former member of the conservative friends of Israel and now a member of the Labour friends of Israel.
He called for Waters to not be platformed in Manchester.
The ever servile Keir Starmer scuttled into the picture to give his backing to the absurd claims made by the board of deputies. The Labour Party leader sent a letter to the board of deputies denouncing Waters as clearly espousing antisemitic views and supporting his deplatforming.
Waters, for his part, responded to Wakeford from the stage in the London O2 arena stating: "you are making things up because you've been told by your masters in the foreign office, in Tel Aviv".
Has the lobby bitten off more than it can chew this time?
David Miller is an academic and a former professor at Bristol University currently, a non resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and global affairs at Istanbul Salem University, he is also a co director of a lobbying watchdog spinwatch, a leading British scholarly critic of Israel.
Jackie Walker is a political activist and a writer. She was also vice chair of momentum when it was founded. Jackie has been a teacher and anti racism trainer.
Were you surprised by the intensification of the campaign against Roger Waters?
Well, it happened at a particular moment, but no, I mean, this is the process of course. they got rid of Jeremy Corbyn several years ago, then they go on to other targets and they will not let up, as many have been saying for a long time, they will not let up until every possible vestige of support from Palestinians is removed from the public sphere.
The objection they seem to have had to Roger Waters was that he mentioned Shireen Abu Akleh.
You can't mention journalists who are Palestinian, who are shot in the head by the IDF, because that will be somehow anti semitic when you put it in the context of other people who've been murdered by the state and of course, this is nonsense.
Absolute nonsense and everyone sees it is nonsense. And that's why it looks like a bit of an overreach, but no I'm not surprised by the intensification, they will do this as much as they can until we fight back.
David Miller, Academic
How do you think this campaign against Roger Waters differs from the accusations thrown at less well known people?
I don't think it's that much different. I think the scale of it is different. And I think Roger is handling it in a different way. But it's the same old, same old, isn't it?
It's kind of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and it's all mirroring and it's actually just lying as well. It's the same old stuff really.
You'd think they could come up with something new but I suppose they can't.
Jackie Walker, Activist and Author
This "feeding frenzy" against Roger Waters was actually started by the Zionist entity's official Twitter account, what does that tell us?
Well, it tells us something which we've been saying for a long time the Zionist movement is a cohesive and centrally directed and centrally coordinated movement.
They have their WhatsApp groups, they have channels of communication. Yes, they have different tendencies within the Zionist movement but this stuff is directed from Tel Aviv and from the ministries there, and their covert operatives.
And it goes out through all the different organizations with whom they collaborate, and that means practically all of the Zionist organizations, whether they're on the left or on the right, they coordinate and they're directed from Tel Aviv.
This is not a surprise, it's not secret, but they've done it particularly openly here,... quite often they try and have some kind of veil of secrecy over it, but they've been particularly open here.
This is directed from Israel. It's an Israeli Government inspired campaign. And of course the rest of the Zionist movement falls into line.
David Miller, Academic
What are your thoughts on Christian Wakeford, who called for Roger Waters to be de-platformed?
I mean, honestly, I don't even know what where to begin with this awful man because this, again, is very typical of what's happening. You know, you're getting racists, calling anti racists, racist, and this person is really racist.
That's what he was when he was a Tory because he actually crossed over from being a conservative on to labour. He was saying the most awful anti immigrant stuff, you know, like refugees come here and they've got sort of a shopping basket of things they want.
He was really being unpleasant and of course, he's just had to apologize, mind you, his apology was accepted for hobnobbing with a kind of accepted islamophobe at the Houses of Parliament.
And these are the kinds of people, ... the interesting thing about Chris Wakeford is that he actually said things about Roger Waters that, had he not had parliamentary privilege, he would have been sued.
And there's a real problem with this. I've had this done against me. They can stand up in Parliament, it will be reported everywhere, and so it will be thought of as being the truth, and, because they have protection of speech in Parliament, they can lie and get away with it.
I mean, these people just astound me.
Jackie Walker, Activist and Author
Roger Water seems to have swallowed some of the Zionist propaganda about Iran, hasn't he? I mean, what's that all about?
So one of the things you saw in the film, in the show, is that he plasters up the names of people. And you would think from the Israeli government's tweet that it was just, Shireen Abu Akleh and Anne Frank.
But no, no, there's there's lots of names he flashes up and these are names of people, according to Roger Waters himself, who have been killed by the state.
He talked about traveling through while touring in the US and every time he went to a new city, they would put up the names of people, almost all black people, who'd been killed by the police, and so this is about directly focusing on state killings.
One of the names that's up there is Mahsa Amini, who of course, died in Iran, and was said by anti Iranian government protesters to have been beaten up by the police and killed by the state. No such thing happens. She collapsed, as a video clearly shows, she wasn't killed by the state. So that's an indication of the kind of the factual basis of her name being included being pragmatic.
And of course, then he tweeted, he tweeted, "hey, Ayatollah, leave those kids alone", to use the term Ayatollah, questionable, but he'd obviously been lobbied and he said that at one of his concerts in Los Angeles people had held up this sign with her name on it. And he'd fallen into the idea that this was a popular uprising as opposed to something developed by the CIA, and indeed, by MOSSAD.
It's unusual for him to do that, because, of course, he was quite perceptive on the whole question of Syria, and called out the White Helmets as being a proxy for NATO.
So it's kind of, it's an interesting thing where he probably was misled.
David Miller, Academic
Do you have any clues as to who might have lobbied Roger Waters?
We already know he said there was people who came who are supporters of the protests, i.e. supporters of the of the dictatorship, the Shah, who came to his concert and held up the sign, they gave him the sign later.
So we know that that was that kind of context. So presumably that was part of the process.
David Miller, Academic
Do you think the campaign against Roger Waters will succeed, or does he possess sufficient resources and public goodwill for that matter, to prevail against the smears?
Oh, my goodness. I mean, I think it's actually not quite worked for them. What it has done, you've got three sets of people.
We've got the kind of people who believe this nonsense anyway.
And then I asked my son who's actually a DJ so he's in the music business and he said, well, most people, most young people, aren't talking about this at all.
And those of them who are just going even more, what is this going on? And what are they trying to do by stopping us listening to our music?
Jackie Walker, Activist and Author
The Zionists attempts to disrupt and subvert Roger Waters efforts to secure justice for Palestine
As Roger Waters found himself embroiled in a confected crisis, over false allegations from Zionist smear factories, a group of Israeli activists on a mission snuck into his London show.
As he launched into his Anti Fascist sequence from the Pink Floyd album, The Wall, the group unfurled an Israeli flag to launch a stunt. They were promptly ejected from the arena by security.
The mainstream media in England launched into its usual hysterics, claiming the daughter of a Holocaust survivor had been manhandled at the Roger Waters show. But who was the woman in question?
Yochy Davis is a Trump supporting member of the Board of Deputies and also a former employee of the Israeli occupation forces propaganda group, My Truth. Her work for the Zionist military was so popular that the Likud Minister of Justice, Amir Ohana, personally sent her a video of thanks.
The campaign against waters is complex. It's also been noted that he was taken in by the anti Iran propaganda during the US and Israeli backed riots, however, his support for Palestine cannot be questioned.
How can Palestinians resist if the only state that materially supports that right is to be attacked in such a way?
Palestine declassified can reveal that a current high ranking employee of Israeli intelligence front Zodiac Maritime, which has been a key part of the war against Iran, was previously employed by Waters.
Annabel Hazel was employed by Roger Waters UK Limited through his manager Mark Fenwick. She's presently executive assistant to Daniel Ofer, CEO of Zodiac Maritime, which was revealed by the Sunday Times to be an Israeli intelligence front attempting to smuggle agents into the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It seems logical to assume she was spying on Roger Waters.
So as an organization is set up and staffed by ex IDF people or reservists in the IDF, and it's there to speak the truth of the occupation forces, their truth, about how they're not nearly as brutal as is being suggested by the world's media.
And Davis is part of that organization. The film says she's been personally thanked by a Zionist regime minister and the organization that she was there with, was also another Zionist organization.
All these organizations, they look like ordinary Jews protesting against anti semitism. But you know, time and time again, we find these are actually organizations, which are directed from, and have links with, directly with the Israeli government.
This is an indication of how Zionism operates; they try and pretend these are ordinary Jews, protesting against what they would call racism, against anti-Semitism, almost always where it doesn't exist.
And then we find when we look a little bit deeper, and scratch a little bit beyond the surface, that these are actually active Zionist agents.
David Miller, Academic
- "What is wrong with Israelis?"
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— Press TV (@PressTV) August 10, 2022
English musician Roger Waters gets emotional while recounting the story of a Palestinian teenager in Gaza whose childhood has been taken away from him. pic.twitter.com/PtrH3qUsEg
Tell us about the media spin on that failed attempt to unfurl an Israeli flag at a Roger Waters concert.
Yeah, I mean, that was extraordinary, wasn't it? One thing I just love about it as well, is that they always choose photos for these people that show them really sweet and nice.
When this person went there with all intention to actually disrupt the show. Yeah, it wasn't her intention to go there and make her statement.
They had been out there protesting before, they had been abusing people, they had been trying to actually agitate people so that they would be attacked.
Again, this is what they do. What they want is to agitate people, people who are not so knowledgeable, who will then get angry, and then they'll take photos of them, and they'll take videos of them, and then they'll use that and that's what this woman was doing.
When she was asked politely not to do it, she became aggressive. She's part of a planned campaign of disinformation, that's what she is.
Jackie Walker, Activist and Author
I believe the organization responsible for the demonstration outside his show was the National Jewish Assembly. Who are they and who's behind them?
Well, it's a fantastically named organization, isn't it? It sounds like it's a kind of nationwide organization representing the Jews, a common organization, but of course it's not. It's a rival to the board of deputies and the reason it's a rival to the board of deputies, is it was set up by a guy called Gary Mond.
Gary Mond was on the board of deputies, and also on the Jewish National Fund, one of the four Israeli national institutions which is involved in ethnic cleansing in Palestine, and he was forced to resign from these organizations because of his comments about Islam.
He talked about being at war with Islam. He retweeted and liked tweets by a well known Islamophobe who was banned from this country for being such a racist.
And he was forced out of those organizations and he set up this new organization to be a rival to the board of deputies. It is bankrolled by him himself.
And so this is a kind of far right rival to the board of deputies pretending to be a Jewish communal organization, which is so pro Israel that they are deeply into Islamophobia.
David Miller, Academic
And tell us about Zodiac Maritime and the relevance of Annabel Hazel who I think went to work for them, didn’t she?
This firm was revealed by the Sunday Times to be a front for the Mossad, it's run by the Ofer family, one of the richest families, I think, the richest family in Israel.
Sammy Ofer was the patriarch who dared to give his name to a school at the Hudson Lee University in occupied Palestine, the only private university which reserves places for elite military and intelligence operatives as students.
And this is a company which is used by the Mossad to take agents into Iran. Of course, we know that Mossad has been engaged in a campaign of assassination of nuclear scientists in Iran. When I was there, I saw the cars of some of the people who'd been killed, executed, bombed, by the Mossad. And so that was the process that was being used there.
She now works as an assistant to the CEO and one can only imagine what on earth she was doing in Waters office. Perhaps it was entirely innocent, but now what will she be able to tell to the maritime and therefore, almost directly to the Mossad about Roger Waters?
Now, isn't that an indication of the way in which Israel's spying is deeply involved in a whole range of places so that maritime is a company but nevertheless, it's being used by the Mossad, as are many people clearly to spy on different Palestine movements.
David Miller, Academic
Does any of this surprise you, Jackie?
These are the same people and there's, you know, they're all working together. However, you know, many of them,... it's the same on the left, many of us on the left were members of different organizations, and it's so with these people as well, of course.
I mean, the difference is where these people can get to, and who has their ear, but none of this surprises me.
I mean, wouldn't it be great? Wouldn't it just be wonderful If we actually had full disclosure, when we see MPs and media tech people and people speaking from the so called Jewish community groups, who are actually Zionist community groups?
Wouldn't it be great if we had full disclosure about who these people were? But I think one thing we know because of the way they behave, is that once they have decided to go for you, they won't stop.
Now, I suppose to counter that, Roger is both very well connected, very wealthy and very popular. But that doesn't mean he doesn't need our support. He does need our support, on there, on social media, countering the lies. He needs our support, to actually keep being able to say what he's saying.
So I don't expect that their campaign will stop. They see any defeat as just a sign to go in even harder, because one thing these people cannot take is any challenge to what they say.
So we will see this challenge coming up again.
Jackie Walker, Activist and Author
David, why do you think Roger Waters’s position on Iran was so wrong?
Well, I mean, I think that he's been misbriefed, probably to be charitable about It. Probably, it's an area where he needs more education than he has, he may have been misled by people who'd come to his concert, who had lobbied him to take the line that he took, but clearly wasn't what happened in Iran, as we know.
All I know is that there was an attempt, because the nuclear deal wasn't going well for the US, it was an attempt to provoke unrest as part of the US's hybrid warfare strategy, and of course, as we know, MOSSAD are also involved to undermine the Islamic Republic of Iran.
And of course, there's a whole series of people in organizations who are engaged in subversion of Iran.
Most of them are funded by, for example, the National Endowment for Democracy, which is of course known as a CIA sidekick, and also some of them funded by the Saudis, Iran International, for example, the TV channel funded by the Saudis.
And that's one of the organizations that that Roger Waters gave an interview to back in September last year, which really is, you know, on the face of it, in retrospect, probably a mistake.
David Miller, Academic
Yeah. Interestingly, I mean, Double Down News. As you know, did a did an interview with Roger Waters, and that created a huge fury, but they then followed that up with another video showing that there is a a tribute planned to Roger Waters, performing exactly the same concert in Israel. Such hypocrisy.
Jeremy Corbyn was accused of being a racist for saying the Zionist didn't understand irony, or even, evidently, they don't understand satire.
Waters and the Israeli tribute band acting out as Nazis as a satire, which is Anti Fascist and anti racist, everybody who's ever seen it knows.
Nobody previously has made this mistake and thought, Oh, he's actually a Nazi.
This is just a concoction, which is based not on actually on the Zionists inability to understand satire, but on the fact that Zionists lie and repeatedly lie as part of their project to squash all possible opposition.
David Miller, Academic
Are the politicians and the media swallowing it or are they just part of this whole charade?
Some swallow it, some are ideologically directed, but of course, the other thing is fear.
People don't want to lose their heads; they can see the damage it will do if they do stand on principle.
And so people feel they're not knowledgeable enough so they feel that they should keep their voice.
David Miller, Academic
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