According to the Wiesenthal Center, rapper Kanye West is at the top of the ten worst anti-Semitic incidents of 2022 with his statements. West, who calls himself Ye today, in addition to constant anti-Semitic statements, also abused his enormous influence on social media to “hate to use fanaticism and ignorance as weapons,” the report said. West helped bring hatred of Jews into the mainstream on social media.
In October, Instagram and Twitter suspended the rapper’s accounts for the first time. Elon Musk briefly lifted the ban after taking over the short message service, but then suspended West again in December because the 45-year-old had apparently spread the image of a swastika. His account recently had around 30 million followers. West then announced that he would buy the Twitter alternative Parler, which is popular with right-wing Americans. It later became known that this would not happen after all.
West also continued to shock offline: At Paris Fashion Week he wore a T-shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter”. The Anti-Defamation League classified the phrase as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement. At the end of October, the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas terminated the cooperation and stopped producing the “Yeezy” brand.
Then, in November, a dinner with former US President Donald Trump and far-right nationalist Nick Fuentes made headlines. At the dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, West suggested running as Trump’s vice president in the 2024 election. The ex-president advised him not to run under any circumstances, but wrote about West in the network “Truth Social”: “Anyway, we got along well, he expressed no anti-Semitism.” West was once one of a handful of stars to publicly speak out for Trump.
In its report, the Wiesenthal Center complained that there was “empathy but not enough action” in the face of anti-Semitic attacks in Germany and other places around the world. The 15th edition of the Documenta art exhibition in Kassel is in eighth place on the list. “In Germany, taboos surrounding hatred of Jews continue to be broken, fueled by sections of the German government and an art elite that allowed the inclusion of anti-Semitic depictions at the prestigious documenta by a group supporting the boycott of Israel,” it said.
The documenta in Hesse was shaken before and during its run by repeated allegations of anti-Semitism. Shortly after the opening in mid-June, a work with anti-Semitic imagery was discovered and dismantled. Even after that, works with anti-Jewish stereotypes were found. The curatorial collective of the documenta, Ruangrupa, was criticized and accused, among other things, of being close to the Israel boycott movement BDS.
The list also included the UN Human Rights Council, which Israel repeatedly accuses of unfair one-sidedness, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Lastly, there is the Telegram channel, which is said to be used by anti-Semites to spread their hate messages.
Founded in 1977 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the Wiesenthal Center became known for its worldwide search for Nazi criminals in hiding. But it also strives to promote tolerance and fights against racism, anti-Semitism, terrorism and genocide around the world.
