Weeks after the city of Frankfurt canceled a Roger Waters concert because of his anti-Israel activism, the mayor of Munich says he cannot find legal standing to do the same.
“We currently see no legally sound possibility … to reverse the decision already made,” said Mayor Dieter Reiter, according to Deutsche Welle. “I don’t want to have it [Waters] here, but now we will have to endure it.”
Waters, the former Pink Floyd bassist, is suing the municipality of Frankfurt after the city blocked him from performing in May at the Festhalle, a venue that was also the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
“The background to the cancellation is the ongoing anti-Israel behavior of the former leader of Pink Floyd, who is considered one of the most widespread antisemites in the world,” the city said in a statement.
Waters has for years been a vocal leader of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, asking fellow artists not to perform there. In recent months he defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to the cancellation of some of his concerts in Poland.
Deutsche Welle reported that Munich City Council is looking at ways to show solidarity with Israel and Ukraine on the date of its show in the city in late May.
The President of the Jewish Community of Munich, Charlotte Knobloch, criticized the Munich authorities, saying that “they have lost an opportunity to continue deeds on many declarations of intent against anti-Semitism.”
