Elon Musk during a visit to Israel on Monday toured a kibbutz that was attacked by Hamas militants as he faces backlash over antisemitic content on X, formerly Twitter.
The owner of X and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Kfar Azza kibbutz, where Hamas fighters led a deadly assault on Israeli civilians, including women and children, on Oct. 7. The pair also visited the families of victims, and Musk was briefed on some of the details of the attack.
“It was jarring to see the scene of the massacre,” Musk said in an X Spaces conversation with Netanyahu later in the day.
Netanyahu’s office also said Israeli officials told Musk about Abigail Idan, a 4-year-old American-Israeli citizen who was taken hostages by Hamas on Oct. 7 after she witnessed her parents being killed. She was one of the 17 hostages released Sunday amid the four-day truce struck between Hamas and Israel.
Netanyahu and Musk in their X Spaces conversation on Monday largely discussed the ongoing conflict and the subsequent effects it’s had around the world, but they did not discuss the antisemitic accusations Musk is facing.
Musk faced a wave of criticism after he seemed to endorse an antisemitic post on X earlier this month.
One user claimed on X that Jews have been encouraging “dialectical hatred against whites” and referenced the “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.” Musk then suggested that the user had said “the actual truth.” This claim echoes an antisemitic conspiracy theory that accuses Jews of wanting to flood Western countries with nonwhite immigrants.
The White House slammed the comment as “unacceptable" as antisemitic incidents rise around the U.S. amid the Israel-Hamas war.
Musk’s X also faces companies halting their advertising on the platform after Media Matters for America said it had found ads for companies including Apple, Bravo, Oracle, Xfinity and IBM placed next to posts celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party on the platform. This, along with Musk’s post, prompted major companies, including IBM, Lionsgate, Disney, Apple and Paramount, to leave the platform.
Shlomo Karhi, the Israeli minister of communications, also said on Monday that he and Musk came to an agreement over the use of Starlink satellite units in Israel. Starlink, which is operated by Musk’s SpaceX, is a network of thousands of satellites that can provide high-speed Internet across the world.
“As a result of this significant agreement, Starlink satellite units can only be operated in Israel with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Communications, including the Gaza Strip,” Karhi wrote on X.
The Hill has reached out to Starlink and X for comment.
