Racist rapper Kanye West suspended from Twitter AGAIN after posting swastika in a Star of David
Elon Musk confirms ban, which followed day in which the antisemitic rapper had sparked further outrage by praising Hitler and declaring 'I love Nazis'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Kanye West has been suspended from Twitter after tweeting an image of a swastika inside the Star of David.
The tweet was deleted shortly before West’s account was deactivated on Thursday.
His page was then replaced with a label: “Account suspended.”
The suspension happened after a day in which the rapper had sparked further outrage by praising Hitler and declaring “I love Nazis”.
Before his suspension, Ye had also tweeted a photograph of Twitter owner Elon Musk being hosed down on a yacht. “This is fine,” Musk tweeted of the image. “This is not,” he wrote in regard to the swastika post, confirming Ye’s suspension. “He again violated our rule against incitement to violence,” Musk added. “Account will be suspended.”
Speaking to disgraced conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his Infowars show, the rapper, who now calls himself Ye, had worn a black hood covering his entire face as he launched into his latest openly racist tirade.
In conversation with Jones, who has previously promoted white nationalists, West said”I see positive things about Hitler too,” as he discussed sin, pornography and the devil.
He added:” “We have to stop insulting Nazis all the time… I love Nazis.”
At one point in the exchange Jones tried to counter West, saying that the “Nazis were thugs and did very bad things”.
But the rapper insisted:”But they did good things too.”
Videos of West’s appearance were widely shared on social media, prompting widespread calls for Twitter owner Musk to act and remove the racist outburst on Thursday.
Announcing that West’s account would be suspended after his swastika post Musk said the multi-award-winning artist had violated Twitter’s “rule against incitement to violence”.
He has 32.3 million followers on Twitter and former MP Luciana Berger was amongst those demanding his account was taken down posting a tweet saying “what starts with anti-Jewish hatred doesn’t end with anti-Jewish hatred…it can inspire others to commit heinous crimes in real life.”
Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said: “Kanye West’s ‘I like Hitler’ comments and subsequent tweets are repulsive and sickening.
“These comments mixed with his high profile and huge following has dangerous consequences. It is blatant Jew hate and needs to be called out and stopped. Enough.”
The rapper was one of several high-profile Twitter accounts that were reinstated after billionaire Musk took over the platform in October.
During Thursday’s appearance on Jones show, which also featured Nick Fuentes – a holocaust-denying white supremacist who last week met Donald Trump – the host attempted to excuse the hip-hop star’s conduct.
He said to him: “You’re not Hitler, you’re not a Nazi, so you don’t deserve to be demonised.”
West instead pushed back, saying: “Well, I see good things about Hitler also.
“The Jews… I love everyone, and the Jewish people are not going to tell me, ‘You can love us and you can love what we are doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we are pushing with the pornography’.”
West added: “I am done with the classifications.
“Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”
During the interview West also brought out a net and a bottle of Yoohoo chocolate milk, in an attempt to seemingly mock Israeli Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu had said the day before that Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting with West and Fuentes was a “mistake.”
The Israeli PM had told US journalist Bari Weiss:”I condemned Kanye West’s antisemitic statements. President Trump’s decision to dine with this person I think is wrong and misplaced. He shouldn’t do that. I think he made a mistake. I hope it’s not repeated.”
Amongst those to condemn West’s latest outburst was Jewish Actor and comedian Josh Gad who said: “It’s not what Kanye West says that scares me, it’s that he has 30 million followers who listen to his insanity on top of a cheerleader in the form of the current owner of this platform.
“No one who says ‘I love Hitler’ should be allowed any oxygen on any social platform (period).”
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