Actor John Cusack sparked outrage on Twitter Monday when he retweeted an anti-Semitic meme — and then repeatedly defended the move — before claiming he was duped into sharing the post by “a bot.”
“Follow the money,” Cusack tweeted, along with an image of the earlier post, which showed an illustration of a hand with the Star of David imposed on it crushing a group of people.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize,” the post said, quoting French Enlightenment writer and philosopher Voltaire.
Cusack fired off the retweet around 7 p.m. — and it didn’t take long for Twitter users to respond.
“This is disgusting,” said journalist Yashar Ali.
“John Cusack is an anti-Semite,” wrote another person. “Pass it on.”
The “Say Anything” star tried to his best to do damage control in a series of follow-up tweets, but not before going on the offensive.
“You think Israel isn’t commuting [sic] atrocities against Palestinians?” Cusack said in response to one angry tweet. “What planet are you on?”
The actor continued, “Palestinian [sic] are forced to live in an open air prison. That’s not anti semetic to say that – that recognizes their plight as part of the fight for justice.”
Eventually recognizing the error in his ways, Cusack said: “A bot got me- I thought I was endorsing a pro Palestinian justice retweet – of an earlier post – it came I think from a different source – Shouldn’t Have retweeted.”
Asked by a user if he now understood “that the image was antisemitic even if that was not your intention,” Cusack said: “It’s was – but its context was a retweet about Palestinians hospitals being bombed – my bad on retweet – of an alt right image…Yes -if image wasPalestinians being squashed- it would have been ok – but Israel gov doesn’t speak for all of Jewish faith any more the us gov under trump speaks for Christians.”
Asked about his “follow the money” comment, Cusack simply said: “War inc bubbah.”
He later claimed that he deleted “and apologized” for the meme because he thought the Star of David was a “state flag- & was responding to tthat flag [sic] being used to excuse bombing of a hospital.”
“I’ve been advocating for justice longer than you’ve been alive probably,” Cusack said.