Roger Waters has sparked controversy with his remarks (Picture: AP)

Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has caused controversy by comparing the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians to the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

The 70-year-old was criticised by rabbis and Holocaust groups after he said in an interview with online magazine Counter Punch last week: ‘The parallels with what went on in the 1930s in Germany are so crushingly obvious.’

Waters, who supports a cultural boycott of Israel, said he would not have played France or Germany during World War II.

He added: ‘There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinian people being murdered.’




During the interview, he also described the Israeli rabbinate as ‘bizarre’ and accused them of believing Palestinians were ‘sub-human’.

Writing in the New York Observer, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach accused Waters of antisemitism.

‘Mr Waters, the Nazis, were a genocidal regime that murdered 6million Jews. That you would have the audacity to compare Jews to monsters who murdered them shows you have no decency, you have no heart, you have no soul,’ he added.

On Saturday, Waters responded to Rabbi Boteach’s critcisim.

He said: ‘I do not know Rabbi Boteach, and am not prepared to get into a slanging match with him. I will say this: I have nothing against Jews or Israelis, and I am not antisemitic.

‘I deplore the policies of the Israeli government in the occupied territories and Gaza. They are immoral, inhuman and illegal. I will continue my non-violent protests as long as the government of Israel continues with these policies.’

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said everyone was ‘entitled to an opinion and to advocate passionately for a cause’.

But she added: ‘Drawing inappropriate parallels with the Holocaust insults the memory of the 6million Jews – men, women and children – murdered by the Nazis. These kinds of attacks are commonly used as veiled antisemitism and should be exposed as such.’