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Elon Musk's trip to Israel is being condemned online. The tech magnate arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday to express his support for Israel in the war against Hamas, with some on social media calling the visit "cowardly" for not including Gaza as well.
The 52-year-old met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, along with family members of hostages taken by Hamas.
The trip came amid allegations of antisemitism made toward Musk after he appeared to agree with a post on X, formerly Twitter. The entrepreneur has strongly denied the claims and Newsweek has reached out to him through Tesla for comment.
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 captive. Israel subsequently fired heavy airstrikes on Gaza. Netanyahu declared his country "at war" and cut off supplies of food, fuel, energy and medicine into the Gaza Strip, before beginning a ground offensive in Northern Gaza.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 14,800 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting began, with an estimated 1.7 million displaced. So far, 40 hostages have been released by Hamas as part of a temporary ceasefire between November 24 to 27, with negotiations ongoing.
Upon arrival in Israel, Musk toured Kfar Azza kibbutz, a settlement devastated by militants in the initial October 7 attacks, along with Netanyahu and a team of security personnel.
Musk snapped photographs of the devastation, before Netanyahu and the Tesla CEO visited relatives of Hamas-held hostages.
"Actions speak louder than words," Musk wrote on X on Monday, with his post receiving more than 18 million views.
However, many users were unimpressed with the billionaire's comment, with user Nadar calling the visit "disgusting."
"@elonmusk what a shame. You couldn't just be neutral?" asked Nader.
"We can clearly see you're a zionist by your actions," said @AbdulEll_.
"I think it's cowardly if he doesn't at least go to #Gaza and speak to #Hamas too," wrote @LDelsoll.
"You can never see the truth when you look from one side," said @onlyislamist_. "You visited Israel. You should visit Gaza now. You can only learn the truth through this method."
Musk was recently accused of antisemitism. On November 15, the Space X founder agreed with an X post claiming that Jewish people are inciting hatred against white people to gain power—known as the "great replacement" conspiracy theory—commenting "the actual truth."
The remark led to X losing a series of advertisers, including Warner Bros, Apple, Walt Disney and Comcast, with Tesla investors also distancing themselves. On November 19, Musk called the antisemitic allegations "bogus," accusing the media of writing false reports.
On November 21, Musk sued left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters, after the organization accused him of allegedly allowing pro-Nazi adverts on X—including quotes by Adolf Hitler and Holocaust denial content. The lawsuit claims that Media Matters "manipulated" the algorithm to bring down the platform, with the nonprofit calling him a "bully."
In a tweet responding to the report, Musk wrote: "The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company."
"X has been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination," Linda Yaccarino, X's CEO, wrote at the time. "There's absolutely no place for it anywhere in the world."
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About the writer
Sophie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in Lincoln, UK. Her focus is reporting on film and ... Read more