(Jérusalem) Le président israélien Isaac Herzog a rappelé lundi à Elon Musk, critiqué pour l’antisémitisme effréné propagé sur son réseau social X, le « rôle énorme » que le milliardaire a à jouer dans le combat contre la haine des Juifs, lors d’un entretien en Israël.
« Nous sommes inondés d’antisémitisme » et « la haine des Juifs impacte le comportement d’êtres humains dans tant d’endroits du monde », a souligné le président Isaac Herzog, selon des images diffusées par la présidence israélienne.
PHOTO RONEN ZVULUN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Le président israélien Isaac Herzog a visité le kibboutz Beeri en compagnie de son homologue allemand Frank-Walter Steinmeie, le 27 novembre.
« Vous avez un rôle énorme à jouer parce que les plateformes que vous dirigez, malheureusement, abritent beaucoup de haine, de haine des Juifs, d’antisémitisme. Je pense que nous devons discuter […] 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”, images of “extremely disturbing”.
“These people have been fed propaganda since they were children […] When humans are fed untruths since they were children, they will think that killing 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 people 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.
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.