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International Holocaust
Remembrance Day should have been even more sober and contemplative than
usual this year. After all, the commemorations around the event are
happening less than four months after the largest massacre of Jews since
the Holocaust on October 7, and amid the horrific loss of life that has
come in its aftermath in Gaza. The date of the upcoming Memorial Day – January 27 – marks the day that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in 1945. And who was invited to tread on the blood-stained ground, where so many Jews faced their deaths, in the run-up of commemorations of the historic event? Elon Musk. Escorted by far-right American Jewish pundit Ben Shapiro, the media was saturated Monday with images of the billionaire mogul and owner of the social media platform X touring the death camp with his young son propped up on his shoulders and holding his hand. A video showed Musk attending a Jewish religious service as a rabbi chanted the lament for the dead. The visit was billed as a "private," but Musk came to the death camp accompanied by a large entourage and multiple photographers. Musk's contributions to fanning the flames of antisemitism have two main dimensions. One is his own comments and posts, in which he has consistently amplified anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and screeds, the latest being when he told a far-right user on his X social media platform that he spoke "the actual truth" after the poster explained why he was "deeply disinterested" in Jewish concerns over spiking antisemitism. Musk also actively took part in the antisemitic social media campaign targeting the Anti-Defamation League. These were just the latest in a series of utterances and recommendations of accounts spreading disinformation, some of whom frequently post antisemitic slurs and condemn "the Zionist regime." The second, and more serious Musk sin has been the destruction of guardrails against racism and hate since he became the proprietor of what was formerly known as Twitter, making blue "verified" checkmark premium accounts available to those disseminating antisemitism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia consistently. Musk has also peddled in the politics of anti-immigrant hate in both the United States and in European countries – including cheering on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) which has recently entertained plans for mass deportation of citizens of foreign origin, sparking massive protests. It was the second such Musk-washing publicity stunt in the same number of months, with the apparent purpose of rehabilitating his image after his comments cost his social media platform millions in advertising revenues. On November 27, it wasn't Shapiro by Musk's side, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, giving him a tour of the decimated Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where Israelis were attacked and murdered by Hamas terrorists. It is clear what Musk gets out of these displays – less so what the benefit is to hosts like the European Jewish Association led by Rabbi Menachem Margolin, which sponsored a conference featuring an on-stage presentation which allowed Musk to tout his goal for X to be "the best source of truth in the world." (The conversation took place after a bizarre presentation of what the Holocaust would look like if it had been live-tweeted on X.) The benefits that Shapiro and Netanyahu reap are more obvious. They are invested in painting antisemitism and hate for Israel as coming exclusively from the far left, denying its dangers in the world of authoritarian white supremacy, whether in Europe or in the pro-Trump MAGA camp in the United States. After Bibi gave Musk his red carpet tour, Haaretz's Ben Samuels criticized the Israeli leader's cynical embrace, writing that the Israeli leader "welcoming such a toxic mogul with open arms and taking him around sites of a massacre that has been belittled, demeaned, and denied on his watch" was a cynical betrayal of the Israelis killed on October 7. And guess where this article appeared?:https://us18.campaign-archive.com/?e=d0aaf29e28&u=d3bceadb340d6af4daf1de00d&id=66ab384400 |
