Roger Waters has responded to accusations that his stage show of ‘The Wall’ is anti-Semitic.
Last week the Anti-Defamation League claimed the stage show uses imagery associated with stereotypes about Jews and money.
In particular, the claims pointed out that during the performance of the song ‘Goodbye Blue Sky’, an animated projection shows aeroplanes dropping bombs in the shapes of Jewish Stars of David followed by dollar signs, although various other religious and corporate symbols are also depicted.
Waters has since denied such claims, saying that Abraham Foxman, the director of the ADL (pictured below), should come to watch the show before “passing judgement and commenting publicly“.
“Contrary to Mr Foxman’s assertion, there are no hidden meanings in the order or juxtaposition of these symbols [in the video],” Waters said in a statement on his official website, Roger-Waters.com.
“The point I am trying to make in the song is that the bombardment we are all subject to by conflicting religious, political, and economic ideologies only encourages us to turn against one another, and I mourn the concomitant loss of life.”
He added that if ‘The Wall’ show did have a political message it was “to seek to illuminate our condition, and find new ways to encourage peace and understanding, particularly in the Middle East“.
Roger Waters, who is currently on the US leg of his world tour of ‘The Wall’, will bring the show to the UK and Ireland in May and June 2011.