Roger Waters has shared a “reimagined” version of Pink Floyd‘s ‘Comfortably Numb’ with Palestinian singer Mona Miari – check it out below.
‘Comfortably Numb Re-Imagined’ transforms the song from 1979’s ‘The Wall’ into a nine-minute tribute to the Palestinian people, featuring new English and Arabic lyrics and a video with footage filmed in Gaza.
The original refrain of “I have become comfortably numb” has been adapted by Waters and Miari into: “I will never become comfortably numb.”
A new section written by Miari, titled ‘Hind’s Lullaby’, has also been added, inspired by the story of Hind Rajab, the six-year-old Palestinian girl killed alongside members of her family in Gaza in January 2024.
Watch the video here:
Proceeds from the release will be donated to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Speaking to WIRED, Waters has said he hopes that people hearing the song would resonate a decade from now. “I hope they’ll hear that it was prophetic – there is a right and a wrong,” he said. “This is not complicated, and this song is on the right side of history.”
“I hope they’ll go, ‘Phew’. They were part of the resistance, and we are part of the resistance. Ṣumūd.” Ṣumūd is an Arabic term associated with Palestinian steadfastness and remaining on the land in the face of occupation and displacement.
Miari added: “I hope 10 years from now, whoever listens to ‘Comfortably Numb Re-Imagined’ could also experience a free Palestine and look back at it as a testament about the truth and what happened, and just cherish that sense of resistance and urgency for freedom.”
Waters also addressed the accusations of anti-Semitism that have surrounded him in recent years. “I don’t have an anti-Semitic bone in my body,” he said. “I never did and I never will have. I couldn’t give a shit what your religion is, frankly. I’m not interested in it.”
Waters has repeatedly denied accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing that his criticism is directed at the Israeli government and Zionism rather than the Jewish people.
In 2013, he was criticised for the appearance of an inflatable pig bearing a Star of David at a live show, and in 2023, David Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson accused him of being “anti-Semitic to his rotten core”, which Gilmour said was “demonstrably true”. Waters described the comments as “incendiary and wildly inaccurate”.
Also in 2023, Berlin police investigated Waters after he wore a Nazi-style uniform during a concert. He said the performance was “quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice and bigotry”.
In 2023, the Campaign Against Antisemitism released the documentary The Dark Side Of Roger Waters, which included allegations about his past conduct. Waters dismissed the film as a “flimsy, unapologetic piece of propaganda”.
A High Court judge issued a preliminary ruling in February last year in a libel case brought by the documentary’s producer John Ware, finding that comments Waters made about Ware were defamatory.
Waters has also been a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for many years, and has clashed with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood over the issue, telling them “there is no argument to be made” over the issue.
He has also traded comments with Nick Cave over the latter’s criticism of BDS, telling him, “It’s not complicated, pay attention”.
Last year, Waters voiced his support for Palestine Action after the organisation was proscribed as a terrorist group by the UK government. He described the group as a “nonviolent” organisation that were “absolutely not terrorists in any way”.
He also called Disturbed frontman David Draiman an “obnoxious little prick” after the singer accused him of a “massive betrayal” of “Jews everywhere”.
‘Comfortably Numb Re-Imagined’ arrives just days after Boy George shared the pro-Israel reggae song ‘We Will Dance Again’, which opens with the line, “You say genocide, I say war“.
George has said the song was inspired by a visit to the Nova Festival Experience in London, which commemorates the Hamas-led attack on the Nova Festival in Israel on October 7, 2023.
