Roger Waters has ruled out a return to the United Kingdom this year over the High Court’s ruling against Palestine Action and subsequent arrests made at a protest in London.
The former Pink Floyd member was set to return home later this year, but has since cancelled plans and cited the Metropolitan Police as a reason. The veteran bassist and songwriter last performed in the UK in 2023, though it appears Waters was set to visit his home country, rather than returning to tour. Waters‘ reasoning for not returning to the UK has since been uploaded to his Instagram account, where he called for Judge Jeremy Johnson, a barrister and justice of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, to be disbarred.
Waters said: “Guess what the Metropolitan Police in London did yesterday. They went back to arresting people for supporting Palestine Action. They arrested 500 people in Trafalgar Square yesterday. I mean, I really find that hard to believe. I had decided I was going to go back to England at some point this summer. After I made a big fuss about the new law proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.
“I made a big fuss about it, a big public fuss that I wasn’t going back to England because I do not want to go to prison. And I thought that was all over when the High Court in London declared the locking up of people for supporting Palestine Action to be unlawful, but now they’ve changed their minds again.
“What a surprise. So we will see what happens. But I’ll tell you one thing, and that is this. I am proud of every one of those 500 people who were arrested yesterday.”
A further statement was made by Waters in the caption of his most recent post. It reads: “Free Palestine. I support Palestine Action. Yvette Cooper, ex-Home Secretary, should be locked up for lying to us and Judge Jeremy Johnson should be disbarred. They are both lackeys of the genocidal state of Israel. Roger Waters.”
Among those arrested at the protests earlier this week was Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, who held a sign reading: “I Oppose Genocide, I Support Palestine Action.”
Del Naja told the Press Association this weekend: “Being a musician, obviously, there was a lot of trepidation around how we might not be able to travel and get visas. But I thought, ‘this is ridiculous,’ and then the police making that U-turn to arrest people again, I thought that is even more ridiculous.
“So I’m going to hold a sign today. If I get arrested, I feel very confident that if I stand up in court with the right guidance and say ‘this was an unlawful arrest and, therefore, I don’t accept it.”
More than 2,200 people have been arrested so far for allegedly expressing support for Palestine Action since it was banned under the Terrorism Act 2000 last summer by then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
The trials of hundreds of people accused of holding up the placards have been put on hold while the legal battle over whether the group should have been banned continues.
