Former Pink Floyd rock star Roger Waters has declared support for Palestine Action.
The musician, 81, said in an online video post on social media: ‘Parliament has been corrupted by a genocidal foreign power. Stand up and be counted – it’s now.’
He condemned the Government’s new move to label Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist organisation’ as a betrayal of justice and democracy.
The singer and bas guitarist, posting a video online, also called out Israel as he said Sir Keir Starmer‘s UK administration had been ‘corrupted by agents of a genocidal foreign power’.
Police yesterday arrested 29 people on suspicion of terrorism offences after protesters gathered in Parliament Square in central London holding signs supporting Palestine Action, just hours after a ban on the came into effect.
Waters has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s military actions in the Middle East.
He has also had a public falling-put with former Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour, trading barbs online.
Waters took to his personal website in June 2021 to upload a cutting statement detailing the latest drama in his ongoing feud with Gilmour, who had joined the group in 1967 – two years after its formation.
Former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters has shared a new statement on social media
The bass guitarist expressed his support for campaign group Palestine Action
Waters, who quit the band in 1985 though did perform with them at the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 2 2005, has been a strident critic of Israel.
And he has now given public backing to the pressure group Palestine Action, saying: ‘This is Independence Day, July the 5th, 2025.
‘I declare my independence from the government of the UK. I support Palestine Action and I always will because that is the right thing to do.
‘This is the “I am Spartacus” moment – good on everybody who is standing up everywhere and saying, “I am Spartacus”.
‘We will not be rolled over by this appalling Labour government in the United Kingdom.
‘Palestine Action is not a terrorist organisation. They are lying. That’s all I have to say.’
He said of Palestine Action: ‘They are non-violent. They are absolutely not terrorist in any way.’
Palestine Action lost on Friday an 11-hour appeal to stop it from being banned as a terror group.
Pink Floyd, pictured left to right: Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Rick Wright
The group reunited to play the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park on July 2 2005
Co-founder Huda Ammor failed in her bid to get the High Court to temporarily block the Government from classifying the group as a terrorist organisation.
This came before a potential legal challenge to the decision to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The founder’s representative told the court that the ban would have a ‘chilling effect on free speech’.
But Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: ‘The judge was entitled to take the view that the harm identified would be the product of an individual’s decision not to comply with the order.’
She added that there was ‘no real prospect of a successful appeal’.
The proposal for the ban which had been approved by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords last week, will make membership and support for the direct action group a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The hearing came after an estimated £7million-worth of damage was caused to two Voyager planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, in a protest claimed by Palestine Action.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23, stating that the vandalism of the two planes was ‘disgraceful’ and that the group had a ‘long history of unacceptable criminal damage‘.
Large crowds gathered outside the Court of Appeal (pictured) in support of Palestine Action
People sat in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament Square on Saturday expressing support for now-banned group Palestine Action
Pink Floyd, renowned for albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, last performed together at 2005’s Live 8 charity gig.
Gilmour’s wife, lyricist Polly Samson, criticised Waters on social media in 2023 over his statements regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accused him of antisemitism, which Waters denies.
Samson posted online about Waters, seemingly in response to an article he had shared concerning Israel.
She had posted a tweet telling Waters he is ‘antisemitic to (his) rotten core’ adding that he was a ‘Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac’.
Waters responded by denouncing the claims as ‘wildly inaccurate’ and ‘incendiary’.
Gilmour then backed his wife’s claims on social media, saying that ‘every word’ of her tweet denouncing Waters was ‘demonstrably true’.
Waters had recently given an interview to German magazine Berliner Zeitung in which he denounced claims he was an anti-Semite.
Sharing the article on Twitter, the musician wrote: ‘The Truth Will Set Us Free.
Police officers speak to protesters as they prepared to make arrests after Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation
‘Against the backdrop of the outrageous and despicable smear campaign by the Israeli lobby to denounce me as an anti-Semite which I am not, never have been and never will be.’
In the piece, Waters said: ‘The most important reason for supplying arms to Ukraine is surely profit for the arms industry.
‘And I wonder: is Putin a bigger gangster than Joe Biden and all those in charge of American politics since World War II? I am not so sure. Putin didn’t invade Vietnam or Iraq? Did he?’
He also insisted Israel was engaged in ‘genocide’ and compared events to the way Great Britain behaved ‘during our colonial period’.
He said: ‘We believed ourselves to be inherently superior to the indigenous people, just as the Israelis do in Palestine. Well, we weren’t and neither are the Israeli Jews.’
