Does the photo of former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters raising the Palestinian flag during a concert represent his support for the Palestinian people in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The photo was taken no later than 2018 and has nothing to do with the conflict between Hamas and Israel that began after a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) published by @deqnaivanova1 on October 13, 2023.
The text overlay reads (translated from Bulgarian to English by Lead Stories staff):
Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters raised the Palestinian flag at his concert as a sign of support for the Palestinian people.
This is how the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Oct 25 10:19:26 2023 UTC)
A Google reverse image search Lead Stories did on October 25, 2023, shows that the footage can be traced back to 2018, as seen in a December 12, 2018, article on the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs website and in several social posts between 2018 and 2023. Such posts can be seen here and here.
According to a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter) from July 21, 2018, where the image can be seen, this happened during a concert in Rome in 2018. Video footage published on YouTube on July 25, 2018, shows Waters raising the Palestinian flag during the concert. The information is also confirmed in an article dated July 15, 2018, by the Italian media "Panorama," which describes the concert and Waters waving the Palestinian flag on stage.
In the footage from a good-quality YouTube video posted on July 17, 2018, showing the same concert, Waters can be seen from the 7:17 to 7:54 minute mark holding the Palestinian flag, which is clearly visible. His clothing, the stage elements and the arrangement of guitars match the image from the video making the claim.
Lead Stories checked Waters' official social network profiles, available through his official website, for the period October 7, 2023, to the date when the claim was published, on October 13, 2023. No posts were found of photos with similar content.
