Kanye West
Kanye WestReuters

Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West topped the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of the top 10 worst antisemitic incidents of 2022.

The center’s annual “Top Ten Worst Global Antisemitic Incidents” list put West at the top spot as an example of “the influencers” who spread “classic tropes deployed by Jew haters – some dating back two thousand years.”

“These antisemitic screeds were kept afloat for decades by America’s godfather of hate – Louis Farrakhan. In 2022, one man, rapper Ye (Kanye West) used his unparalleled social media influence to morph these historic tropes into a firestorm of real-time antisemitism — absorbed by millions, and inspiring acts of hate against Jews – living and dead,” the report said.

The center put West at the number one spot on the list because during 2022 he “delivered or shared antisemitic conspiracies to a social media following of tens of millions.”

According to the report, “That led to a Dave Chappelle wink and nod to millions of viewers on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Kyrie Irving‘s tweet shared a promotion of an antisemitic movie with his 22.5 million social media followers. The slanders against Jews was then defended, supported and reinforced by hundreds of thousands, including, white supremacists and extremists among Black Hebrew Israelites.”

The Wiesenthal center blasted West for contributing to “mainstreaming and expanding antisemitism when he had dinner with former President Trump along with extreme right activist Nick Fuentes.”

“Major social media platforms could have moved quickly to block the tsunami of hate based on their own terms of usage, but by and large they chose not to,” the report noted.

Number two on the list was the United Nations Human Rights Council for the “demonization of Israel and normalization of antisemitism by diplomats involved with the Middle East [which] continues to escalate without being held accountable by the United Nations.”

Third on the list was Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority followed by “Iran’s state-sponsored hate” and the hostage taking at the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas in January.