Washington, DC – After Elon Musk made an apparent Nazi salute at an inauguration rally for United States President Donald Trump, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) rushed to defend the SpaceX founder.
The self-described anti-Semitism watchdog and “main anti-hate group on the earth” dismissed Musk’s raised arm as “a clumsy gesture in a second of enthusiasm” in a social media post on Monday.
Months earlier, nonetheless, Jonathan Greenblatt, the top of the staunchly pro-Israel ADL, in contrast the Palestinian keffiyeh to the Nazi swastika.
Activists say the distinction between the ADL’s hurried defence of Musk and its efforts to demonise Palestinians and their supporters exhibits that the group is extra centered on silencing voices crucial of Israel than it’s on combating anti-Semitism.
“The ADL is being crystal clear about the place it stands,” mentioned Beth Miller, political director at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
“They’ve made it as clear as potential that they aren’t a good supply of data in terms of anti-Semitism. They aren’t truly prioritising the safety of Jewish communities in any respect.”
Miller referred to as the ADL a “hateful group” devoted to smearing Palestinian rights advocates.
For years, the ADL has been a go-to NGO for presidency businesses and the company world in terms of anti-Semitism, hate crimes and broader civil rights issues.
The group has hosted prime Israeli and US politicians, FBI administrators, celebrities and businesspeople.
The group’s annual “audit” of anti-Semitic incidents within the US — which final yr included “sure expressions of opposition to Zionism, in addition to help for resistance in opposition to Israel” — typically will get cited by authorities businesses and laws.
Nonetheless, Palestinian rights supporters and US-based Muslim teams have lengthy sounded the alarm in regards to the ADL and its stalwart help for Israel.
In recent times, the group has come beneath elevated criticism for the notion that it has gone gentle on right-wing figures accused of bigotry, so long as they help Israel.
These accusations escalated after Musk’s gesture on Monday.
“Simply to be clear, you might be defending a Heil Hitler salute that was carried out and repeated for emphasis and readability,” progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on social media in response to the ADL’s defence of Musk.
“Folks can formally cease listening to you as any type of respected supply of data now.”
Simply to be clear, you might be defending a Heil Hitler salute that was carried out and repeated for emphasis and readability.
Folks can formally cease listening to you as any type of respected supply of data now. You’re employed for them. Thanks for making that crystal clear to all. https://t.co/0gLdMCU3UV
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) January 21, 2025
Musk’s gesture
Whereas talking on the Capital One Enviornment following Trump’s inauguration, Musk put his hand to his chest, then swiftly raised his arm as he thanked the gang for electing the Republican president.
The 53-year-old billionaire then circled and did it once more.
His movement resembled the Nazi gesture — referred to as the “Sieg Heil”, German for “hail victory” — which has roots in an historical Roman salute.
“My coronary heart goes out to you. It’s because of you that the way forward for civilisation is assured,” Musk mentioned.
Whereas it isn’t unusual for politicians to increase their arms to greet an viewers, the mix of Musk’s rhetoric about “civilisation” and the repeated gesture raised many eyebrows.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historical past professor at New York College who writes about fascism and authoritarianism, mentioned in a social media publish that Musk’s gesture was “a Nazi salute — and a really belligerent one too”.
Musk has not supplied an in depth clarification of what occurred, however he did brush off the accusations, saying that his critics “want higher soiled tips”.
“The ‘everyone seems to be Hitler’ assault is sooo drained,” Musk wrote on X. He later shared a publish displaying Democratic politicians with their arms raised and dismissed legacy media as “pure propaganda”.
However Matan Arad-Neeman, a spokesperson for IfNotNow, a Jewish progressive group, rejected Musk’s obvious denial.
“I’m descended from Holocaust survivors, and I do know a Nazi salute after I see one, and that was completely what Elon Musk was doing,” Arad-Neeman advised Al Jazeera.
He added that the ADL’s defence of Musk was “obscene”. He juxtaposed the group’s response with its response to antiwar protesters pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, the place Israel has pursued a devastating navy marketing campaign since 2023.
“It’s not stunning — though it’s shameful — that the ADL has spent latest years focusing their consideration on egging on a crackdown on protesters for Palestinian human rights and antiwar protesters,” Arad-Neeman mentioned.
ADL-Musk feud
The ADL’s backing of Musk would have been unthinkable lower than a yr and a half in the past, when the billionaire entrepreneur threatened to sue the pro-Israel group over allegations that it was stopping firms from promoting on X after he acquired the platform.
Musk’s assaults, which the ADL described as “harmful and deeply irresponsible”, have been additionally perceived by critics as anti-Semitic. Some criticised Musk for blaming a Jewish group for his new firm’s shortcomings.
However weeks after accusing X of “elevating” anti-Semites, the ADL welcomed what it referred to as the platform’s “intent” to deal with anti-Semitism.
In October 2023, Greenblatt described Musk as an “wonderful entrepreneur and extraordinary innovator”, positively evaluating him with the pioneering industrialist Henry Ford, who’s extensively believed to have espoused anti-Semitic views.
Even after Musk and the ADL appeared to bury the hatchet, the X proprietor responded to a publish accusing Jewish communities of selling “dialectical hatred” in opposition to white individuals by writing: “You might have mentioned the precise fact”.
Musk visited Israel in November of that yr, weeks into its battle on Gaza, and met with the nation’s leaders.
Arad-Neeman mentioned bigots shouldn’t be capable of “wave away their anti-Semitism” by saying that they help Israel.
“It’s unacceptable,” he advised Al Jazeera. “It’s offensive to the overwhelming majority of American Jews who’re terrified by individuals like the Proud Boys, by individuals like Elon Musk, by individuals like Donald Trump who cosy as much as white supremacists and fascists.”
Apart from his feedback on the Jewish individuals, Musk has voiced help for far-right teams the world over.
Final month, he sparked outrage when he mentioned solely Germany’s far-right social gathering, the AfD, might save the nation.
Musk has additionally taken up the reason for the British anti-Muslim campaigner Tommy Robinson, who’s in jail for contempt of courtroom as a part of a libel case. A courtroom discovered that Robinson had falsely accused a Syrian refugee schoolboy of attacking “younger English women”.
The ADL not too long ago denounced Robinson, whose authorized identify is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, as an “anti-Muslim bigot”.
‘Censoring our speech’
Abed Ayoub, the chief director on the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), mentioned he wished the ADL would lengthen the identical cautious method and advantage of the doubt it provided Musk to members of Arab and Muslim communities.
“This organisation has a historical past of censoring our speech and going after our speech and our freedom of expression, and it has made life tough for a lot of Arabs, Palestinians, Muslims and our supporters on this nation,” Ayoub advised Al Jazeera.
The ADL opposed a proposed mosque in New York in 2010 as a result of it was near the location of the 9/11 assaults on the World Commerce Middle, siding with far-right and Islamophobic teams.
The group has admitted greater than a decade later that its place on the mosque was “unsuitable”.
Extra not too long ago, the ADL has accused protesters supporting Palestinian rights — together with left-wing Jewish teams — of selling anti-Semitism.
Earlier this month, the ADL featured on its web site a Jewish insider story slamming CBS Information for interviewing Josh Paul and Hala Rharrit, two former US officers who stop their authorities jobs as a protest in opposition to Washington’s help for Israel’s battle on Gaza.
The article emphasised a imprecise connection that Paul and Rharrit have with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group.
Final yr, Greenblatt slammed members of then-President Joe Biden’s administration for assembly with Osama Siblani, the writer of the Michigan-based Arab American Information, over what he referred to as “sympathy” for Hezbollah and Hamas.
The ADL has additionally been an uncompromising supporter of Israel’s battle on Gaza, which rights teams and United Nations advocates have described as a genocide.
Ayoub mentioned it’s straightforward to get behind the ADL’s “mission on paper”: to battle hatred and bigotry. However extra persons are turning into conscious of the group’s precise positions, he added.
“We’re beginning to see a crack of their help, and we’re beginning to see individuals name them out, particularly on issues like defending Elon Musk on the pace at which they did,” Ayoub advised Al Jazeera.
The ADL didn’t reply to Al Jazeera’s request for remark by the point of publication.
On Tuesday, Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish group, began circulating a petition calling for the ADL to retract its defence of Musk.
“The ADL claims to be an skilled on antisemitism,” the petition reads.
“They’re fast to defame pro-Palestinian college students, Black and brown elected officers, writers, and professors over accusations of antisemitism. However when the world’s wealthiest man carried out a Nazi salute whereas the world watched, they got here to his protection?”
