Actor John Cusack has come under fire after he shared an anti-Semitic meme on his Twitter feed Monday.
The 52-year-old actor, who first came to prominence with a series of 80s teen films including Better Off Dead and Say Anything, tweeted an meme with the message “Follow the money”.
The meme itself includes a picture of a giant hand crushing a crowd of people, and shows the hand with a sign of David. Next to this image is the quote “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
The quote, erroneously attributed to the 18th century French philosopher, is actually taken from the work of Kevn Alfred Strom, a neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier who was convicted in 2008 on child pornography charges.
Added underneath the meme was the caption “Is it not obvious?”
Cusack’s tweet provoked an immediate wave of criticism.
After initially attempting to defend the tweet, Cusack later removed it.
In a later tweet, the actor blamed the tweet on an internet bot.
“A bot got me,” Cusack wrote. “I thought I was endorsing a pro Palestinian justice retweet - of an earlier post - it came I think from a different source - Shouldn't Have retweeted.”
In a follow up series of tweets, Cusack said he had retweeted it intending to condemn the “Israeli occupation” and express support for “Palestinian human rights”.
“it's clear that even if it was Israel's flag & even if you don't have antisemitic bone in your body, it is still an antisemitic cartoon. Because it deploys anti jewish stereotypes in its attacks on Israel, even if those critiques about state violence are legit I mistakenly.”
“I mistakenly retweeted an alt right account I thought was agreeing With the horrible bombing of a hospital in Palestine.”
“in reaction to Palestinian human rights under Israeli occupation, an issue that concerns anyone fighting for justice , I RT’d & quickly deleted an image that’s harmful to both Jewish & Palestinian friends, & for that I’m sorry."
"The image depicted a blue Star of David, which I associated with Israel as their flag uses the same color & shape. I know the star itself is deeply meaningful to Jews no matter where they stand on Israel’s attacks on Palestinians. The use of the star, even if it depicts the state of Israel- committing human rights violations - when combined with anti Jewish tropes about power- is antisemitic & antisemitism has no place in any rational political dialoge.”
