Simon Wiesenthal Center Applauds BMG Group for Making a Principled Strand on Roger Waters’ Antisemitism

Today, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement in support of the BMG Group’s decision to sever its businessties with Roger Waters on account of the musician’s long-term history of anti-Semitism.

“Antisemitism comes in my flavors; Roger Waters embodies nearly all of them: an obsession with the supposed evils of only onecountry; Israel, a persistent belief that this one country is the root of all the world’s evil, a belief that Israel and the Jewish community control the governments of the UK and the US, and hiscontinued, obsessive twisting of Holocaust imagery. Roger Waters has the unique distinction of promoting nearly every ancient and modernhatred against Israel and the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global SocialAction Agenda.

In severing its relations with Waters, Cooper commended BMG group for taking a principled stand against hate. “Make nomistake. Roger Waters is not defending the Palestinian cause, but rather, using Palestinians as a thin shield to pursue his obsessive hatred of Israel and Jews. We commend BMG Group and hope other institutions will take similarly principled stands in recognizing the difference between advocacy and hate. The only wayanti-Semitism will recede is when anti-Semites, like Roger Waters are held accountable for their hate.”

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the UnitedStates. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).