Musk to meet Israeli president

The X chief goes to Israel amid accusations of anti-Semitism

Elon Musk, the owner of the X (formerly Twitter) social media network, is set to meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog to discuss the anti-Jewish sentiments and the ways to tackle them on social media, the office of the President of Israel confirmed on Sunday.

During the meeting on Monday, they will be joined by Israelis whose family members have been taken hostage by Hamas militants during their deadly attack on Israel last month.

“In their meeting, the president will emphasize the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online,” Herzog’s office said, as cited by Reuters. The entrepreneur has yet to confirm the visit.

The Tesla CEO will also meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, according to Israel's Channel 12, may even tour the Israeli settlements along the Gaza Strip border, in what critics claimed was an attempt to salvage his public image.

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Ever since purchasing Twitter and rebranding it as X last year, Musk has faced criticism from mainstream media and various rights groups for allegedly tolerating racist messages and endorsing hatred on his social media platform.

Earlier this month, Musk was accused of personally promoting an anti-Semitic trope after he said he agreed with another user which suggested that Jewish people are stoking “hatred against whites.” Following the scandal, several major companies including IBM, Disney, Paramount and Apple pulled their advertisements from the platform.

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Musk has denied the allegations of anti-semitism, threatening with suspension anyone advocating for “for the genocide of any group.” In a post on X on Frida, the billionaire added that terms such as “decolonization” and “From the river to the sea” are phrases that “imply genocide” and would be sufficient to trigger a ban, adding that “clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension.”

Following a meeting with Netanyahu in September, during which the Israeli PM urged the tech entrepreneur to strike a balance between protecting freedom of expression and fighting hate speech, he even claimed that he was in fact “aspirationally Jewish.”