The US State Department intervened on Tuesday in the scandal surrounding a concert by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters in Berlin, when he appeared on stage in clothes. Nazi uniform. The US said the speech was “deeply offensive to the Jewish people” and accused Waters of using anti-Semitic slurs, Reuters reported.

Waters, 79, said the speech last month, in which he wore a black cloak with a swastika-like emblem, was a rallying cry against fascism, injustice and bigotry, and called criticism of it “politically motivated”.

• Roger Waters defends himself in Nazi uniform scandal. The artist is threatened with imprisonment

Berlin police said they were investigating Waters on suspicion of “inciting people”.

Deborah Lipstadt, the US special representative for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism, called the concert a “distortion of the Holocaust.”

In emailed comments that were not attributed to a specific official, the State Department backed Lipstadt’s comment and said Waters’ concert in Berlin “contains imagery that is deeply offensive to the Jewish people and denigrates the Holocaust.”

“The artist in question has a long history of using anti-Semitic clichés to denigrate the Jewish people,” the agency added.

The department did not respond to additional questions, including whether and in what form officials saw the concert, or provide examples of Waters’ alleged use of anti-Semitic slurs.

Footage from the May 17 concert shows the famous singer aiming an imitation machine gun at the audience, reenacting scenes from the film based on Pink Floyd’s 1979 hit album The Wall, which criticizes fascism.

Waters tweeted that the portrayal of a “crazy fascist demagogue” has been a hallmark of his show since The Wall.