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Roger Waters performed at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, Uruguay, and is scheduled to perform at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The singer, however, stated in an exclusive interview with Pagino 12 media outlet in Argentina that he was being blocked from living in the country and had to live in Brazil:
"Somehow these idiots of the Israeli lobby managed to co-opt all the hotels in Buenos Aires and Montevideo and organized this extraordinary boycott based on the malicious lies... about me. I have not had a single anti-Semitic thought in my entire life."
The statement comes as cases have been filed against the singer in Argentina's federal court by Carlos Broitman, a lawyer. Meanwhile, Roby Schindler and Franklin Rosenfeld, presidents of the Central Israelite Committee and Jewish NGO B'nai B'rith, accused the singer of being an anti-Semitic artist.
More on Roger Waters Anti-Semitism controversy
Roger Waters has been a fierce critic of Israel and its policies towards Palestine, especially since the start of the more than 40-day-long Israeli bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. During recent concerts, the singer has flown an inflatable pig emblazoned with the Star of David at his concerts.
He also made several statements countering Israel's narrative of the events of the attack as well as the United States unconditional support of Israeli policy, stating on Glenn Greenwald's System Update podcast on November 2, 2023:
Was it justified for them (Hamas) to resist the occupation? Yeah. But again, it’s what you said, it’s the Geneva Conventions. They are absolutely legally and morally bound to resist the occupation since 1967. It's an obligation.
The singer continued, casting doubt and suspicion on how Israel missed the opening breaches by Hamas into the illegal barrier surrounding the Gaza strip, as well as countering the Israeli narrative of Hamas war crime:
"Let's wait and see what happened was my first reaction. My second reaction was how the hell did the Israelis not know this was gonna- and I'm still a little bit down that rabbit hole. Didn't the Israeli army in those 10 or 11 camps hear the bangs when they blew up whatever they had to blow up to get across the border? There's something very fishy about that"
The singer continued:
Probably the first 400 were Israeli military personnel. That is not a war crime. Things were thrown out of all proportion by the Israelis making up stories about beheading babies. They even got the president of the United States, dotard that he is, to claim that he has seen photographs of the beheaded babies!
This is not the first time in recent time that Roger Waters has made controversial claims in recent times, particularly in the context of the wider Israel-Palestine conflict, with the singer speaking out in support of Palestine and against the Israeli airstrikes against Gaza on May 9, 2023:
Roger Waters is best known for his work as part of Pink Floyd, including the seminal albums, The Dark Side of the Moon, as well as Wish You Were Here and The Wall respectively.
