Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Ice Cube slams Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for calling out anti-Semitism

(JTA) — Rapper Ice Cube slammed NBA legend and columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for calling him out in a piece taking celebrities to task for posting anti-Semitic statements on social media.

Abdul-Jabbar’s latest column in The Hollywood Reporter named Ice Cube among various figures from the entertainment world he cited for perpetuating anti-Semitic canards.

“Shame on the Hollywood Reporter who obviously gave my brother Kareem 30 pieces of silver to cut us down without even a phone call,” the rapper tweeted.

The reference to “30 pieces of silver” is a nod to Judas, the disciple said to have betrayed Jesus.

“Just when you thought @icecube could not get any more Antisemitic …” international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky tweeted in response.

Abdul-Jabbar’s column noted a series of tweets Ice Cube had posted in early June, including a mural some have called anti-Semitic and images associated with conspiracy theories against Jews.

On June 30, the rapper’s attorneys filed a cease-and-desist order against journalists Charles Nash of Mediaite and Marlow Stern of the Daily Beast for publishing “outrageously false unverified, and disparaging allegations regarding Ice Cube,” whose given name is O’Shea Jackson. Above the letter he wrote, “Don’t play with me. This is just phase one.”

The letter, sent from a Los Angeles law firm, specifically refers to “the ridiculous, false accusation that Ice Cube ordered his ‘entourage to beat up a rabbi,’ was sued for it, and that he is anti-Semitic.”

Last month, the Daily Beast published an article by Stern titled “Ice Cube’s long, disturbing history of anti-Semitism.” In an article published days later on the Mediaite website, Nash repeated the claims, citing the Daily Beast article.

The post Rapper Ice Cube slams Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for calling out anti-Semitic social media posts appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.