British author, composer and performer Roger Waters indicated in an interview with an Argentine newspaper that he was unable to find accommodation in hotels in Montevideo and Buenos Aires where he had to give concerts, and denounced the boycott led by the “Israel lobby.” .
The former Pink Floyd co-founder and leader, who just played several concerts in Brazil as part of his “This Is Not a Drill” tour, is scheduled to perform in Montevideo on Friday, then in Buenos Aires next Tuesday and Wednesday.
But the 80-year-old British-born artist told the Argentine newspaper Pagina 12 that he had no choice but to stay in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he performed a concert on Saturday and Sunday, and to fly to both banks of the Rio de la Plata. On the day of his party.
“Somehow, these idiots from the Israel lobby managed to seize all the hotels in Buenos Aires and Montevideo and organize this extraordinary boycott based on malicious lies… about me,” he told Page 12.
Contacted by AFP, Montevideo Hotels declined to comment.
The heads of the Jewish Central Committee of Uruguay, Robbie Schindler, and the Jewish NGO B’nai B’rith, Franklin Rosenfeld, this week accused Roger Waters of being a “promoter” of Jewish hatred, in letters addressed to the Sofitel hotel in the Uruguayan capital and broadcast on social networks.
France Press agency
Mr. Schindler called Mr. Waters “a misogynist, a xenophobe and an anti-Semite,” while Mr. Rosenfeld threatened to launch an anti-Sofitel campaign if the hotel hosted the “anti-Semitic artist.”
“I have never had an anti-Semitic thought in my entire life,” Roger Waters defended Page 12, asserting that his critics point to the actions of the Israeli government.
Many controversies have surrounded the musician involved in human rights advocacy in 2023. He has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine before the United Nations, as well as those who provoked him.
Or at a controversial concert in Berlin after which the US State Department criticized “anti-Semitic elements for defaming Jews.” Mr Waters championed a “message against fascism, injustice and intolerance in all its forms”.
In recent years, the musician has also defended measures to boycott Israeli products in the name of defending the Palestinian cause.
The “This Is Not a Drill” tour, which began in July 2022 in the United States before continuing in Europe, will end on December 9 in Ecuador after final shows in Chile, Peru, Costa Rica and Colombia.
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