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Pink Floyd co-founder and former bassist Roger Waters' recent comments about the Hamas-Israel conflict while on Glenn Greenwald's System Update show triggered immense social media backlash. The Pink Floyd bassist was asked if the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel were justified in the interview, which aired on Saturday, November 4. Waters replied:
"Was it justified for them (Hamas) to resist the occupation? Yeah"
"It's the Geneva Conventions, they are absolutely legally and morally bound to resist the occupation since 1967. It's an obligation," he added.
Furious with his statements, netizens called Roger Waters a "Jihad apologist" and a "vile" person. He was called antisemitic by many users, and some even got rid of all their Pink Floyd records because they believed Waters' statements had tarnished the band's legacy.
"Things were thrown out of all proportion by the Israelis making up stories": Roger Waters
Roger Waters sat down for an interview with Journalist Glenn Greenwald on an episode of System Update with Glenn Greenwald, which aired on Rumble on Saturday. Thirty-two minutes into the interview, Greenwald asked Waters what his reaction was to the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Walters said:
"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," he added.
When asked by Greenwald if there were limits on the way they could resist, Waters reiterated the statement that he had put out regarding the attacks by saying that he condemned any war crimes, if they were committed, regardless of who committed them. Greenwald proceeded to ask Waters if he thought that there was evidence that emerged that war crimes were committed.
Waters said that he was reading a news story by The Grayzone that day, which showcased figures put out by Haaretz on how many people were actually killed on that day.
"Probably the first 400 were Israeli military personnel," he said, adding, "That is not a war crime."
When asked about targetting civilians, Waters quickly said that he does not condone that.
"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!," he exclaimed.
He further said that the official narrative of the conflict had "huge holes" in it. When Greenwald asked him about the antisemitism allegations against him and the claim that he valued Palestinian lives over Israeli lives, he completely denied it and called the claim "complete rubbish."
Netizens call Roger Waters a "Jew hater"
Roger Waters' comments on the Israel-Hamas conflict triggered a slew of backlash against the musician. People on X (formerly Twitter) revived the antisemite allegations against Waters and called him a "Jew hater." Here are a few reactions from @visegrad24 and @AvivaKlompas's tweet of the interview clip:
Amidst his unwavering support for Palestine, Rogers Waters has been on the receiving end of antisemitic allegations. Recently, a Campaign Against Antisemitism investigation into Waters claimed that Waters sent his stage crew e-mails in which he asked them for an inflatable pig hovering over the stage with antisemitic slogans written on it.
