A judge has ruled that Roger Waters has defamed the director of The Dark Side Of Roger Waters after claiming he is a “lying, conniving Zionist mouthpiece”.
Investigative journalist John Ware sued both the Pink Floyd co-founder and the Al Jazeera media company for defamation after Waters called Ware a “lying, conniving Zionist mouthpiece” and accused him of “cheerleading the genocide of Palestinians” during an interview on Al Jazeera.
Produced and presented by Ware, The Dark Side Of Roger Waters collates various incidents of alleged anti-Semitism levelled against the musician. Waters previously dismissed the project as “a flimsy, unapologetic piece of propaganda”.
Today (February 25), Justice Jennifer Eady ruled that Waters was making a statement of fact rather than an honest opinion. The ruling will advance the lawsuit towards trial (per The Hollywood Reporter). The court rejected the musician’s argument that his statements were his opinions on the conduct of Israeli forces in Gaza and other things.
“The statements are defamatory of the claimant at common law. Although I would accept that the first defendant’s reference to a ‘genocide’ expressed his opinion as to what was happening as a result of the actions of Israeli forces in Gaza (to which he had already referred), in stating that the claimant positively supported that ‘genocide,’ I find he was making a statement of fact,” Eady wrote.
ROGER WATERS AND AL JAZEERA LOSE IN COURT!!
The judge said ”The statements are defamatory”.
They lost on the preliminary issues in John Ware’s libel case, and according to @SCynic1 will now have to settle. pic.twitter.com/rg2HamTRhD
— Alex Hearn (@hearnimator) February 25, 2025
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism shared: “We welcome this judgment on the meaning of Roger Waters’ nonsense rant following John Ware’s production of our documentary, The Dark Side of Roger Waters, exposing Mr Waters’ history of inflammatory conduct towards Jewish people,”(via antisemitism.org).
They continued” “Those who claim that someone alleging antisemitism is just a ‘cheerleader for genocide’ are just spouting a modernised version of the trope that those who allege antisemitism are merely trying to silence criticism of Israel. Jeremy Corbyn tried it and it doesn’t hold water. It’s a line long used by people like Mr Waters and it is high time that he faces repercussions for his big mouth.”
Waters has made his support for Palestine very public but has also been frequently accused of anti-Semitism, which he has strenuously denied on the basis that he takes issue with the state of Israel, not Judaism as a whole.
He has previously accused Israel of “abusing the term anti-Semitism to intimidate people like me into silence”, and back in November he speculated that the “fishy” attacks perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 could have been a “false flag operation”.
Waters’ former bandmate David Gilmour hit out at him with claims of anti-semitism last year. Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson also hit out at Waters in a tweet in which she accused Waters of being “anti-Semitic to [his] rotten core”.
She continued: “Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.” Gilmour re-shared Samson’s tweet, adding that “every word [is] demonstrably true”.
Waters himself issued a statement in response, which saw him describe Samson’s comments as “incendiary and wildly inaccurate” and continued that he “refutes [them] entirely”. He added that he was “taking advice as to his position” regarding the claims.
Samson’s comments came after Waters took part in an interview with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, and shared his views on Israel and the Russian-Ukraine war.
Great news! Berlin police have launched a criminal investigation into Roger Waters following his concert in which he dressed like a Nazi SS officer holding a gun and denigrated the murder of Anne Frank.
Shockingly @AMCTheatres is promoting Waters currently. pic.twitter.com/6AlIHMmbR2
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 25, 2023
Per a translated version of the interview on Waters’ site, the musician was at one point asked if he still believed – as he had said in the past – that the state of Israel was comparable to Nazi Germany. “Yes, of course,” he replied. “The Israelis are committing genocide. Just like Great Britain did during our colonial period.”
In May 2023, Waters went on to perform a controversial concert in Germany which was criticised by the US State Department who described it as “deeply offensive to Jewish people”.
The comments came after the musician appeared on stage at his show wearing a black trench coat with a swastika-like emblem. At the time the musician defended the choice, claiming that the segment was a statement against fascism, injustice and bigotry and called criticism of it “disingenuous and politically motivated”.
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