Kanye West, known as Ye, made headlines by announcing a sudden reversal in his stance on antisemitism, following years of incendiary behavior. The declaration came just hours after the tragic shooting in Washington, D.C., where Yaron Lischnisky and Sarah Milgram lost their lives.
Ye, who has long courted controversy through his antisemitic statements and actions—including the recent release of a track provocatively titled “Heil Hitler”—used the social media platform X to issue a string of remorseful posts. This change in tone stands in stark contrast to his February proclamation: “IM NEVER APOLOGIZING FOR MY JEWISH COMMENTS.”
Though he refrained from directly addressing the D.C. murders, between approximately 6:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Ye posted eleven messages that conveyed regret and advocated for peace. Among the statements were: “God forgive me for the pain I’ve caused” and “GOD CALLS FOR PEACE.”
In addition to his reflective posts, Ye shared a snippet of a new song titled “Alive,” which features rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again.
Ye’s past behavior on social media includes multiple episodes of antisemitic rhetoric. In one infamous 2022 post on X, then known as Twitter, he wrote that he was going to go “death con 3 on the Jews.” He later followed up that outburst by asserting he couldn’t be antisemitic because “black people are actually Jew.”
His conduct sparked a wave of backlash from the business world. A number of high-profile companies—including Adidas, the Creative Artists Agency, Foot Locker, and Apple Music—cut ties with him in response to his repeated antisemitic comments.
This week’s apparent pivot is not the first time Ye has claimed a shift in perspective. In 2023, he wrote on Instagram that watching the film 21 Jump Street, which stars Jewish actor Jonah Hill, had made him “like Jewish people again.”
Later that year, he posted an apology in Hebrew on Instagram, directed at the Jewish community, attempting to walk back some of his prior statements.
At the height of his controversy, Ye’s X account was suspended by platform owner Elon Musk. The account has since been reinstated.
{Matzav.com}