German broadcaster pulls backing for Roger Waters gig over BDS support

German public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) withdrew its sponsorship of an upcoming Roger Waters concert on Sunday, after activists lobbied to have the show canceled due to the former Pink Floyd front man’s anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views, according to reports in German media.

WDR pulled its support for the show in Cologne scheduled for June 11, 2018, after a local resident launched a petition urging the broadcaster “not to grant support with public money for the anti-Semite Roger Waters.”

In a letter, chairman of WDR Tom Buhrow told the local Jewish community to regard his decision “as a personal message of trust and understanding.”

Bassist and vocalist Waters, an outspoken critic of Israel, is known for publicly harassing artists scheduled to visit Israel or perform there.

In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League, having previously defended Waters against charges of anti-Semitism, acknowledged that “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” have “seeped into the totality” of the former Pink Floyd frontman’s views.

Earlier this year, WDR was mired in controversy when it refused to broadcast a documentary on anti-Semitism in Europe that it had commissioned.

Titled “Chosen and Excluded — Jew Hatred in Europe,” the documentary by Joachim Schröder and Sophie Hafner was commissioned and approved by WDR on behalf of its Franco-German partner channel Arte. Arte, however, refused to show the documentary, accusing its producers of violating production guidelines by including too much footage from Israel.

According to Arte program director Alain Le Diberder, the extensive coverage of Israel would be off topic in a film on European anti-Semitism.

This view had been heavily disputed by the producers and a large number of public figures, among them scholars, politicians and authors, who demanded the studio air the film, saying that the coverage was necessary in order to expose anti-Semitic Israel bashing.

Some voices, among them Bild editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt, raised the suspicion that, in fact, the film was not being shown because its finding that anti-Semitism is widespread in European society would be inconvenient for some.