Roger Waters’ lawsuit against ‘The Dark Side of Roger Waters’ documentary director was dismissed.
A London high court ruled that Waters’ statements calling a documentary filmmaker “cheerleading the genocide of Palestinians” and a “Zionist mouthpiece” in an Al Jazeera interview were defamatory, via the Hollywood Reporter.
Justice Jennifer Eady decided on Tuesday that Waters was stating facts, not opinions, and blocked him from claiming otherwise. This ruling moves the lawsuit forward to trial.
Eady wrote, “The statements are defamatory of the claimant at common law. -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.”
🚨🚨ROGER WATERS AND AL JAZEERA LOSE IN COURT!!
The judge said ”The statements are defamatory”.
They lost on the preliminary issues in John Ware’s libel case, and according to @SCynic1 will now have to settle. pic.twitter.com/rg2HamTRhD
— Alex Hearn (@hearnimator) February 25, 2025
A representative from Campaign Against Antisemitism also said, “We welcome this judgment on the meaning of Roger Waters’ nonsense rant following John Ware’s production of our documentary, ‘The Dark Side of Roger Waters,’ exposing Mr Waters’ history of inflammatory conduct towards Jewish people.”
They added, “Those who claim that someone alleging antisemitism is just a ‘cheerleader for genocide’ are just spouting a modernised version of the trope that those who allege antisemitism are merely trying to silence criticism of Israel. Jeremy Corbyn tried it and it doesn’t hold water. It’s a line long used by people like Mr Waters and it is high time that he faces repercussions for his big mouth.”
Last year, John Ware, who made the documentary ‘The Dark Side of Roger Waters,’ sued Waters for comments he made on Al Jazeera’s ‘The Stream.’ The documentary looked at antisemitism claims about Waters and included interviews with people from his career, like his former saxophone player Norbert Stachel, and Pink Floyd’s producer Bob Ezrin.
Waters posted on his website that the documentary “indiscriminately mixes things I’m alleged to have said or done at different times and in different contexts, in an effort to portray me as an antisemite, without any foundation in fact.”
In 2023, German authorities investigated Waters for wearing a black leather trench coat with a red armband featuring two crossed hammers during a show in Berlin. He has denied accusations of antisemitism throughout his career.
