(Washington) Washington on Tuesday joined accusations of anti-Semitism against ex-Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters, who sported an outfit reminiscent of an SS officer at a May concert in Berlin in Germany.
Berlin police announced Friday the opening of an investigation “on suspicion of incitement to hatred” following complaints “because the clothes worn on stage are likely to glorify or justify the National Socialist regime and to disturb public order”.
In the images posted on social networks, the singer appears wearing a long black coat marked with a symbol reminiscent of the swastika and red armbands.
Several media also mentioned inscriptions, in red letters on a screen during the concert, of the names of Anne Frank and Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian-American star journalist of the Al Jazeera channel killed during an Israeli raid in May 2022 .
The depiction “contained symbols that were deeply offensive to the Jewish people and minimized the Holocaust,” the US State Department blasted.
“This is not the first time that the artist in question has used anti-Semitic material to denigrate Jews,” he added in a statement.
Roger Waters, 79, has also distinguished himself in recent years by defending actions to boycott Israeli products in the name of defending the Palestinian cause.
The singer and composer, for his part, accused his detractors of “bad faith”.
“Aspects of my concert that have been questioned are clearly a message against fascism, injustice and bigotry in all its forms” and any attempt to see anything else “is dishonest”, he said. said in a message posted Friday evening on his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
The ex-Pink Floyd also sparked controversy recently by assuring that it was “not true that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked”.