Judge rules against Roger Waters in defamation lawsuit
A judge has ruled that Roger Waters defamed the director of The Dark Side of Roger Waters after the musician made several remarks about his position on the Gaza-Israel conflict.
Journalist and filmmaker John Ware filed a lawsuit against Waters after the musician labelled him a “Zionist mouthpiece, liar, and accomplice” who “incites genocide against Palestinians”. This came in response to Ware’s documentary, which explores Waters’ previous antisemitic remarks and actions.
Several moments in the film place him under the spotlight, with a handful of Waters’ fellow musicians and colleagues recalling incidents in which he used antisemitic slurs or poked fun at Jewish culture.
One such story came from Pink Floyd’s former producer, Bob Ezrin, who claimed Waters called the band’s manager a “fucking Jew”. Saxophonist Norbert Stachel also accused Waters of refusing to eat “Jew food” before making fun of his Jewish ancestors.
Now, Judge Jennifer Eady has ruled against Waters, saying that his comments about Ware were framed as fact, making his position defamatory. She acknowledged that, while his statements about Gaza were viewed as opinion, the accusations were damaging to “the claimant at common law”.
“The statements are defamatory of the claimant at common law,” the judge explained. “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.”
Waters has previously been vocal about his support for Palestine but repeatedly accused of anti-semitism, which he has denied and described as a ploy on Israel’s part to “abuse the term” and “intimidate people like me into silence”.
Others, like his former band member David Gilmour and his wife, Polly Samson, previously supported the claim of anti-semitism, with the latter describing him as “anti-semitic to his rotten core”. She also took to social media to brand him “a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac”.
In response to the accusations and Ware’s The Dark Side of Roger Waters, Waters posted a statement online, arguing that the film “manipulates footage and quotations to serve its agenda and is seriously misleading in many respects”.
He asserted: “I am not, and have never been, an antisemite – as anyone who really knows me will testify.”
Continuing, “I know the Jewish people to be a diverse, interesting, and complicated bunch, just like the rest of humanity. Many are allies in the fight for equality and justice, in Israel, Palestine and around the world.”
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