But on Tuesday night during his London performance, Waters claimed: “You [Wakeford] were making s*** up because you were told to by your masters in the Foreign Office in Tel Aviv because of this hate.
“This hate is being organised from Israel. And I’m not afraid to say it because I know Christian Wakeford, that what I’m saying is not a lie.”
The 79-year-old singer said he wanted to have “just a brief word with our not-friend Christian Wakeford.”
He continued: “Maybe you don’t know about this. I don’t know how long it takes for the news to get from Manchester. Though in fact, this news happened in London.”
"Hey Roger, leave us Jews alone". Protestors picket outside The O2 (Photo: Felix Pope/Jewish Chronicle)
Quoting Wakeford's parliamentary question, Waters denied that he had used Anne Frank’s name to “stoke division”, and showed her name on a screen during his performance.
He said: “These people in this room here, Christian, have just seen Anne Frank’s name up on the screen along with names of a dozen other people killed either by militarised police or by tyrannical racist regimes.
“Anne Frank is one of them and we pay our respect to Anne Frank by remembering her name.
“Their [my critics'] complaint, by the way, was that also in that list of names was Shireen Abu Akleh who was not 16, unlike Anne Frank when she died, but was 51.
“She was shot to death by an Israeli IDF soldier on the outskirts of the town of Jenin on purpose. She was murdered by a racist tyrannical regime. That’s why they both were on the same screen together.”
He did not perform in an SS costume, he added, but one with “crossed hammers” on the sleeve.
The musician has previously said the Nazi-style uniform he has donned on stage before is intended to portray an “an unhinged fascist demagogue” in reference to the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall.
Protesters who gathered outside the O2 at a London show (Photo: Felix Pope/Jewish Chronicle)
“If you tell me that doesn’t make a difference, you’re even dimmer than I thought you were,” he told 20,000 audience members.
“It’s called theatre, darling. It’s called satire. We’ve been doing it since Bertolt Brecht and Shakespeare you f**king moron.”
Moving on to his final charge against Wakeford, Waters added: “He said, oh and used the Star of David on a giant pig...Guess what, Christian? I didn’t. Do your research - cripple!”
Scope, a leading disability charity, has stated that “cripple” is an “offensive and outdated term”.
An inflatable pig floats over the crowd at Roger Waters' performance during Desert Trip at the Empire Polo Field on October 16, 2016 in Indio, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
At a 2013 gig, Waters flew a large pig-shaped balloon emblazoned with the Star of David, but he has not used such a device on his current tour. In London, a floating pig with no Jewish iconography appeared above the crowd.
Christian Wakeford (Photo: Getty Images)
Waters also defended former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He said: “I’ve watched other people be cancelled. I watched Jeremy Corbyn be cancelled by the Israeli lobby.
“That was what happened in 2019 and if it hadn’t happened we might have had the first decent Labour prime minister for f***ing 50 years, because he cared about the working classes.”
Wrapping up before the show resumed, Waters said: “I didn’t come here to tell you [this]. If only I didn’t have to tell you, if only these f***ers weren’t trying to cancel me. But they are!
"I’m not gonna let them do it, I’m fighting back.”
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said of the comments: “Yet again, we see the grotesque mockery of Anne Frank and trivialisation of the Holocaust together with an age-old antisemitic slur that suggests that Jews are pulling the puppet strings of people in power.”
Wakeford told the JC: “Roger Waters is continuing to show what a nasty man he is by not only continuing to use inflammatory language that I believe is antisemitic but also resorting last night to ableism.
"I think his disgusting views and comments say more about him than I could ever wish to. They have no place in society."
Waters was contacted for comment.
