JERUSALEM

Israel on Tuesday accused Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, of being antisemitic after he said a Jewish businessman and philanthropist hates humanity.

A day earlier, Musk tweeted that Holocaust survivor George Soros "hates humanity" and reminds him "of Magneto," a comic book villain who features in Marvel’s X-Men series.

Following Musk's tweet, the phrase "the Jew" became a trending topic on Twitter, said Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

A ministry statement also said Musk’s remarks on Soros, 92, "immediately led to antisemitic conspiracy theories on Twitter."

The remarks by Musk, who also owns electric car company Tesla, came few days after Soros’ investment firm disclosed it had sold off its entire holdings of Tesla stock.

Several Jewish groups recently also accused Musk of not doing enough to curb what they described as antisemitism on Twitter after he bought it last October.

This is, however, the first time that Israel officially and directly accused Musk of antisemitism.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar