(Credits: Piers Morgan Uncensored)
An interview between Piers Morgan and Roger Waters was always going to prompt moments of immense tension, and on July 2nd, it did just that. When the ex-Pink Floyd leader joined the former News of the World editor on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the pair got into a heated debate about the war crimes being committed in Gaza and those that occurred on October 7th, which commenced the conflict.
The interview was announced by Morgan on Instagram, who wrote: “Update: I interviewed Pink Floyd star Roger Waters yesterday, after calling him ‘the world’s dumbest rock star’ and a ‘complete and utter moron.’ It went as well as could be expected.”
Notably, Waters has been open in supporting Palestine’s right to defend itself and has attracted numerous claims of antisemitism because of his stance and other factors, such as donning an SS-style Nazi uniform during his tour last year and historical claims of antisemitism from associates. He has vehemently denied all the allegations.
With Waters one of rock’s most outspoken figures and Morgan also making a career out of being dogmatic, tension emerged when the pair debated what occurred on October 7th, 2023. This was the day Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope in the south of Israel. It marked the first invasion of Israeli territory since 1948. It kicked off the ongoing Israel–Hamas war, which has divided the world, creating an ongoing humanitarian crisis for the Palestinian people, with there many reports of war crimes committed by the Israeli state on civilians.
The October 7th incursions include the attack on the Nova music festival, which saw 364 civilians killed and many more wounded. During this brutal start to a bloody conflict, many alleged cases of rape and sexual assault were reported to have occurred, but Hamas officials denied their fighters’ involvement.
However, the United Nations insists that those allegations did occur. A March report opens: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations of Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023”.
During the interview, things came to a head when Waters proposed that there should be a thorough investigation into what happened on October 7th. The 80-year-old once more supported Palestine’s right to defend itself from Israel, who are an occupying force.
“I’m not saying a part of the Palestinian resistance movement didn’t cross that wire fence. I am not saying that didn’t happen at all,” the former Pink Floyd bassist said. “What I am saying is there is all this talk about does Israel have a right to defend itself why didn’t Israel defend itself that morning?”
“Why did they wait seven hours before they started machine-gunning everyone?” he pondered. Waters also praised Al Jazeera‘s investigation into that day. “And all the great work that the Grayzone did in debunking all the filthy degusting lies that the Israelis told after October 7 about burning babies and women being raped.”
When the host reasoned that women were sexually assaulted and raped on October 7th, Waters rejected the likelihood. “No, they weren’t,” he maintained. “There was no evidence. You can say anything that you want, but there is no evidence.”
No stranger to controversy, Waters attracted much heat after he suggested that Israel might have targeted its own civilians, implying some sort of false flag operation. “All those piles of cars they were destroyed by Apache missiles from helicopters Hamas didn’t have helicopters,” he said.
Waters did characterise killing civilians as a “war crime” but refused to dub Hamas a terrorist organisation, defending Palestine’s right to fight back against its “oppressor”.
“The people fighting on behalf of Palestine liberation have a legal and moral have a right to fight back against the oppressor,” he explained. “If someone invades your country, kicks all the people out of their home, steals everything and is stealing all your land and occupies all your land for 75 years you have an absolute right to armed resistance”.
When Morgan read out a Tweet from Polly Samson, the author and wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, Waters laughed, as it described him as “antisemitic to your rotten core”, as well as a host of other incendiary adjectives. Waters has been feuding with Gilmour since his acrimonious departure from Pink Floyd in the mid-1980s.
Morgan pointed out that Waters’ rival Gilmour had retweeted it, and Waters retorted: “No comment. Oh, shut up… They’re public, and I’m private”.
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.