Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli spoke with Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about his recent visit to Auschwitz alongside former senior politicians from both Israel and Europe and Elon Musk.
“It was a very important event, with our former President Rivlin, the former President of France, who spoke most harshly against antisemitism, and of course Elon Musk,” the Minister stated.
He said that Musk noted the similarities between the Holocaust and the October 7th massacre: “Elon Musk said he saw similarities between what happened here and around Gaza. He pointed out that it takes a massive amount of indoctrination to get people to be happy about the merciless killing of parents in front of their children, just as it did to send parents and children alike to gas chambers.”
Chikli recounted Musk's insistence that the October 7th massacre not be conflated with the Holocaust: “Even in the summer of 1944, no one came to help - not after 5 hours, not after a few months. Musk said that we must draw a line between the Holocaust and the October 7th massacre.”
Chikli called for Musk to do better at fighting antisemitism on X: “Twitter is in a relatively good place, but anyone can say anything they want - hate, blood libels, mocking women who were raped, lies, anything. Accounts who say things like that have no business being on Twitter.”
He addressed the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day report, and the new antisemitism it discusses: “Once it was about the individual Jew. Now they say it is about the state of Israel. The antisemitism, though, is still the same, with people being assaulted only for being Jews, and it is ridiculous to say that anti-Zionism is anything different.”
He stated that Jews globally and the state of Israel in particular could do more against antisemitism: “We need to move from a defensive to offensive mindset. We saw this with those who confronted the universities. We take direct action against antisemitism with digital and diplomatic means that are constantly advancing, but the state of Israel must go first in doing so."