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Pink Floyd's Roger Waters Blames Israelis for Floyd Death

The musician sat down for an interview with the pro-Hamas Shehab News Agency

June 22, 2020

Musician and anti-Israel activist Roger Waters claimed Saturday that Israelis invented the method police used to kill George Floyd.

Waters, the cofounder of Pink Floyd, said in an interview with the pro-Hamas Shehab News Agency that Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody last month because of "a technique invented by" the Israeli Defense Forces.

"That is an Israeli technique, taught to the militarized police forces of the United States of America by Israeli experts, who the Americans have been flying over to the United States, to teach them how to murder the blacks because they've seen how efficient the Israelis have been at murdering Palestinians in the occupied territories using those techniques," Waters said. "And they're proud of it."

The songwriter also also referred to U.S. ambassador David Friedman as "Greenberg."

Waters has long denied charges of anti-Semitism, though the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has labeled him a conspiratorial anti-Semite. He supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel, which seeks to destroy the Jewish state through economic warfare. In 2013, he flew a giant pig balloon emblazoned with the Star of David above his concert and he drew criticism from the ADL for a 2010 concert series that featured an animated depiction of planes dropping bombs in the shape of Stars of David, followed by dollar signs.

Waters caricatured casino mogul Sheldon Adelson as a "puppet master" in control of the White House and said the prominent Republican donor is a "crazy, crazy, crazy guy" who has the "prick of Donald Trump in his pocket."

Waters has long refused to play concerts in Israel, which he has called a "racist apartheid Israeli regime" and compared to Nazi Germany. On Saturday, he called Zionism an "ugly stain" that needs to be "gently removed."

Floyd died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, sparking protests across the United States.

Waters's remarks were first reported by the watchdog Middle East Media Research Institute.

The New York Times hosted Waters for an interview in 2017, ahead of a "Resistance" concert tour aimed at President Donald Trump.