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Rapper Ice Cube posts series of anti-Semitic memes on Twitter

The rapper Ice Cube courted controversy on Twitter Wednesday after tweeting out a series of memes linking Judaism to occult worship and implying that modern-day Jews are not descended from ancient Israelites.

Related story: We need to talk about Ice Cube’s anti-Semitism allegations

Ice Cube has tweeted hundreds of images and messages in support of the protests against systemic racism and racism in policing over the past week. But on Wednesday, without warning, several of those tweets, posted within minutes of one another, seemed to target Jews.

One showed an image of Egyptian hieroglyphics supposedly depicting Hebrew slaves and the words “Clearly they are a black people.” The meme may be a reference to the idea, shared among some members of the Hebrew Israelite religion, that black people — not present-day Jews — are the true descendants of biblical Israelites.

ice cube

Image by Twitter

Another tweet depicted a black cube inside a star of David, above images of sculptures of black cubes in cities around the world. The “black cube of Saturn” is, evidently, a reference to occult worship.

ice cube

Image by Twitter

ice cube

Image by Twitter

The tweets came two days after Ice Cube tweeted an image of a mural that critics have called anti-Semitic. The mural, which was removed from a London wall in 2012 over complaints of anti-Semitism, depicts men with prominent noses sitting around a monopoly board resting on the backs of black people.

The tweets provoked a strong backlash, with some commenting that Ice Cube was jeopardizing his role as a voice of protest against systemic racism by posting the memes.

It’s not at all clear whether Ice Cube believes in the views implied by the memes he posted.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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