Provocative by essence, since the time when his band Pink Floyd marched militarily to the sound of “The Wall”, Roger Waters He made his art a division of opinion. Loved, hated, persecuted and revered, at 80 years old he would not have to change. And so, with his insurmountable ideology, he arrived in the country to present his show “This Is Not a Drill”, in the midst of a dialectical fire for his statement against the Israeli government in the Gaza conflict.
Two nights, November 21 and 22, in a River Plate stadium at capacity, to display his music, his anti-war statements and expose once again his declared enemies for years such as Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Margaret Thatcherplus others that have been added in recent times such as Joe Bidenwhile, when his song “Two Suns In the Sunset” was playing, apologized for the usurpation of Malvinas. So far, all the paraphernalia that has always accompanied him on each of his international tours. The problem arose in recent days because several hotel chains in the region canceled his reservations “for being in favor of Palestine and Hamas terrorism.” Thus, arbitrarily, The Hyatt Centric in Montevideo banned him from entering, as did the Faena and the Alvear in Buenos Aires, as well as the Four Seasons in Colombia, his next stop.
“I know very well what I feel in my heart and I have not had a single anti-Semitic thought in my entire life”Waters said a few days ago in one of his classic anti-war speeches that he gives when he presents his concerts. “What I condemn is what the Israeli government does. An ethnic cleansing carried out for 75 years, since day one of the nakba. “They have killed hundreds and hundreds of people, they have committed atrocities, massacres that have been happening since then.”. The former Pink Floyd vocalist accuses Israel of having started this war to fulfill its mission against Palestine.
Faced with these controversial words, the one who took action on the matter was the Delegation of Argentine Israeli Associations (DAIA), which filed an appeal for protection before the Court to demand that its two shows in the country be suspended. And although during the hours prior to its presentation on Tuesday the 21st in River there was a certain tension, the measure did not prosper, nor did a pro-Palestine tent that was intended to be installed at the intersection of Avenida del Libertador and Udaondo, in the heart of Nuñez, and that the Police managed to quickly lift. That afternoon, due to the unrest that was experienced throughout the neighborhood, the ORT school decided to suspend classes and send all its students and teachers back home.
Where he was. The artist’s environment consulted about his whereabouts in Buenos Aires, namely, producers, assistants and press agents, all refused to give information due to the precise instructions of his manager not to reveal any information about his turbulent stay in the country. However, this magazine found out that, in the three nights in Buenos Aires, he and His team would have stayed at the Sheraton de Retiro. At the hotel they dismissed NOTICIAS’ query, but sources who were aware of the security operation that surrounded the musician stated that he left the Sheraton when the guards accompanied him to give the recitals. Waters played hide and seek.
Before arriving in the country, the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of State Workers (CLATE) made available its hotels in Buenos Aires such as the Héctor Quagliaro, located at Moreno 2654, or on June 27, at Bolívar 1415, in the heart of San Telmo. And although it is unlikely that such a celebrity would have stayed in an Argentine workers’ hotel, at least he received a gesture of brotherhood in the face of so many questions.
His previous days in the city of Montevideo were not very relaxing either. The president of the Central Israelite Committee of Uruguay, Roby Schindler, called him “misogynist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic” in a note, and accused him of “taking advantage of his fame as a rock star to lie and spew his hatred towards Israel and all Jews.” ”. For its part, already in our lands, legislators Sabrina Ajmechet, Alejandro Finocchiaro and José Luis Espert presented a statement in which they stated “a deep repudiation of the singer’s presence in our country.”.
Faced with these attacks, Waters did not ignore it and fired: “The Roby Schindlers of this world try to silence me because I believe in human rights and they don’t.”
Waters’ time in Argentina left phrases to remember. Despite this, The more than 120,000 fans who enjoyed his two shows at River offered their praise for making them relive those revolutionary airs that he knew how to impose in the ’70s and ’80s. And so his iconic songs passed, his flying inflatable pig over the audience and his sonic virtuosity that took him to the top of the most important musicians of the 20th century. It is suspected that this time it was his final goodbye from the South American stages. Time will confirm it.
