The Israeli president on Monday reminded Elon Musk, criticized for the rampant anti-Semitism spread on his social network .
“We are inundated with anti-Semitism” and “hatred of Jews impacts the behavior of human beings in so many places in the world,” underlined President Isaac Herzog, according to images released by the Israeli presidency.
“You have a huge role to play because the platforms that you run, unfortunately, harbor a lot of hatred, hatred of Jews, anti-Semitism. I think we need to talk […] how to combat this hatred,” he told Mr. Musk.
“It always starts with the Jews, it never stops with the Jews,” he recalled.
Mr. Musk had previously visited, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in the south of the country attacked on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The boss of X and the giants Tesla and SpaceX said he experienced “an emotionally difficult day: seeing the places where people were murdered. And also see the video where the murderers rejoice”, “extremely disturbing” images.
“These people have been fed propaganda since they were children […], when humans are fed untruths since they are children, they will think that the killing of innocent people is a good thing. Propaganda can influence people’s minds to that extent,” he noted, without mentioning possible measures on X.
Elon Musk has been under fire for the proliferation of hateful, anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic comments on the social network since he bought it in October 2022.
The White House accused him in mid-November of “abject promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred”. In a post on X, he endorsed a conspiracy theory according to which Jews had a secret plan to encourage illegal immigration to the West in order to weaken the white majority there.
Relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas spoke to Mr. Musk during this meeting.
“You are a very powerful man,” Malki Shem-Tov told him, calling on him to “relay our voices to bring back the hostages,” including his son Omer.
“We know that innocent civilians are also suffering terribly in Gaza. We families are suffering horribly, we would appreciate any help you can provide,” Rachel, mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, asked him.
The unprecedented Hamas attack left around 1,200 dead in Israel, mainly civilians, according to authorities, and some 240 people were forcibly taken to Gaza. In retaliation, Israel bombed Gaza, killing 15,000 people, according to the Hamas government.
A truce has been in progress since Friday, accompanied by the release of hostages by Hamas and Palestinian detainees by Israel. It will be extended by two days, according to Hamas and Qatar.
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi also announced on Monday an agreement in principle on the use in Israel and Gaza of the Starlink satellite Internet access service, owned by Elon Musk.