Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to meet with Israeli President Isaac Herzog amid an antisemitism controversy with X, formerly known as Twitter.
The billionaire entrepreneur is facing accusations by civil rights groups of amplifying anti-Jewish hatred on his social media platform. Musk will make the trip to also meet with Israelis whose relatives have been held by the Hamas militant group in Gaza.
Elon Musk To Meet With Israeli President
The Israeli president's office announced the meeting on Sunday night and said that the two would emphasize the need to combat rising antisemitism online. Musk did not respond to requests for comment regarding the scheduled meeting.
The visit coincides with a four-day truce between Israel and the Hamas militant group where so far, 58 of the roughly 240 hostages that Israel says have been held by the militant group have been released.
Local Israeli media also noted that Musk would meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. However, there was no immediate comment from the Israeli prime minister's office regarding the supposed meeting, as per The Guardian.
Netanyahu previously met with Mush on Sept. 18 in California, where the Israeli prime minister urged the Tesla CEO to strike a balance between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech. The request came after several weeks of controversy over antisemitic content on X.
The tech billionaire responded by saying that he was against antisemitism and against anything that "promotes hate and conflict." He repeated his previous statements that social media platforms do not promote hate speech.
During that particular visit, which came before the war between Israel and Hamas, roughly 200 hundred people protested efforts by Netanyahu's government to curb judicial powers. They gathered outside Tesla's California factory, where the meeting was held.
Musk is facing criticism after a Nov. 15 incident where he agreed with a post on X that falsely claimed that Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people. He said that the user who referenced the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory was speaking the "actual truth," according to Reuters.
Addressing Antisemitism on X
The White House later condemned what it called an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that runs against America's core values. Following the controversy, major US companies, including Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, and NBCUniversal parent Comcast, paused their advertisements on X.
The conspiracy theory in question claims that Jewish people and leftists are manufacturing the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants. After the start of the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitic incidents in the US rose by nearly 400% from the prior year.
The situation also comes as Musk is developing an artificial intelligence startup, xAI, and Israel is considered a world leader. The Middle Eastern country's nearly $500 billion economy is estimated at around 2%, with slow growth expected next year after it was previously on track to top 3% this year with low unemployment.
Musk also came under fire for blocking Starlink access in Crimea to prevent Ukraine from targeting occupying Russian forces with drones. The decision came after the billionaire entrepreneur spoke with Russian officials who expressed fears that such assaults would lead to a nuclear response, said Business Insider.
