Update: (October 8, 2010): According to reports, the sequence of the symbols in "The Wall Show" concert video has been changed so that the dollar signs are no longer followed by the Star of David imagery.

The change followed open letter from ADL to Roger Waters. 

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New York, NY, September 27, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today criticized rock music icon Roger Waters for using imagery long associated with stereotypes about Jews and money as part of a segment of his 2010-2011 "The Wall Live" Tour that takes aim at Israel's West Bank security fence.

During his performances of "Goodbye Blue Sky," an animated scene projects images of planes dropping bombs in the shape of Jewish Stars of David followed by dollar signs, according to an interview in the September 30 issue of Rolling Stone.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement: 

It is outrageous that Roger Waters has chosen to use the juxtaposition of a Jewish Star of David with the symbol of dollar signs.  While he insists that his intent was to criticize Israel's West Bank security fence, the use of such imagery in a concert setting seems to leave the message open to interpretation, and the meaning could easily be misunderstood as a comment about Jews and money.

 

Of course Waters has every right to express his political views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through his music and stagecraft.  However, the images he has chosen, when put together in the same sequence, cross a line into anti-Semitism.

 

We wish that Waters had chosen some other way to convey his political views without playing into and dredging up the worst age-old anti-Semitic stereotype about Jews and their supposed obsession with making money.