David Gilmour has attacked his former Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters on Twitter, continuing a decades-long rift between the pair with claims of antisemitism.
Yesterday (February 6), Gilmour’s wife, the author Polly Samson, shared a pointed tweet in which she accused Waters of being “antisemitic 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 then re-shared Samson’s tweet, adding that “every word [is] demonstrably true”.
Shortly prior to Gilmour’s post, Waters himself issued a statement in which he called Samson’s comments “incendiary and wildly inaccurate” and said he “refutes [them] entirely”. He added that he is currently “taking advice as to his position” regarding the claims.
NME has contacted Waters’ spokespeople for a further response.
Samson’s comments come after Waters conducted an interview with German newspaper Berliner Zeitung last week in which he discussed his views on Israel and the Russian-Ukraine war, among other topics.
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.”
He reiterated – as he has since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began – his criticism of the United States and President Joe Biden‘s role in the Russian-Ukraine war, calling America “the main aggressor” and saying that conflict was “provoked beyond all measure”.
Waters also said he found it “really, really sad” that his former Pink Floyd bandmates released benefit song ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ last year, a charity single featuring Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk that raised funds for humanitarian charities aiding those affected by the Russian-Ukraine war.
“It encourages the continuation of the war,” he said. “Pink Floyd is a name I used to be associated with. That was a huge time in my life, a very big deal. To associate that name now with something like this… proxy war makes me sad.”
“I will not raise a flag in this conflict,” Waters added. “Not a Ukrainian flag, not a Russian flag, not a US flag.”
Last year, during an interview with Rolling Stone, Waters also discussed his views on Israel, referring to it as “a supremacist, settler colonialist project that operates a system of apartheid” for its continued occupation of Palestine.
Waters insisted he was “absolutely not antisemitic”, and argued that “saying Israel does not have a right to exist as an apartheid state, any more than South Africa did or anywhere else would, is not antisemitic”.
Waters was a member of Pink Floyd from the band’s inception in 1965 up until his departure two decades later, amid creative differences and a legal dispute. He has reunited onstage with his former bandmates – Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright – only once, for Live 8 in 2005.
Next month, Waters is set to embark on a European and UK farewell tour. The tour will kick off March 17 in Lisbon, Portugal and will run up until June 10, when Waters will perform at Manchester’s AO Arena.
In March, Pink Floyd will also release a 50th anniversary reissue box set of 1973’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’. Set to arrive on March 24, it will feature a newly remastered version of the album on CD and gatefold vinyl, along with Blu-ray and DVD audio featuring the original 5.1 mix and remastered stereo versions.
The box set will also include both a CD and LP of the band’s live album ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon – Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974’, along with a 160-page hardback photo book, replica 7″ singles and more.