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Amazon will not pull antisemitic movie promoted by Kyrie Irving, says Jewish CEO
(JTA) – Bucking weeks of public pressure from Jewish groups, celebrities and the Brooklyn Nets, Amazon will not stop selling an antisemitic documentary on its service that was promoted by NBA star Kyrie Irving.
The company’s CEO Andy Jassy, who is Jewish, said Wednesday that Amazon had no plans to remove or add a disclaimer to “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” whose Amazon link Irving ignited a firestorm by tweeting about it earlier this month. Amazon had previously considered whether to add a disclaimer.
“As a retailer of content to hundreds of millions of customers with a lot of different viewpoints, we have to allow access to those viewpoints, even if they are objectionable — objectionable and they differ from our particular viewpoints,” Jassy told the audience at the New York Times DealBook Summit.
Jassy drew a distinction between the film, which promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories about the relationship between Jews and Black people, and content that he said “actively incites or promotes violence or teaches people how to do things like pedophilia.” With the latter, he said, decisions to remove content are “more straightforward.”
The e-commerce giant had been internally debating whether to remove the film for weeks, according to reports in Variety. It had been uploaded to the site independently via a program called Prime Direct, which allows user-generated content to be sold on the site’s streaming services.
Irving’s tweet — which shared an Amazon link to the documentary without further comment — came on the heels of more explicitly antisemitic behavior from rapper Kanye West and sparked the ire of the Anti-Defamation League and the Nets, who eventually solicited an apology from the athlete. Nike ended a sponsorship deal with Irving following the tweet. Black Hebrew Israelites, a group whose ideology is promoted in the film, rallied to Irving’s defense.
But critics ranging from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith to Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan questioned why Amazon was escaping scrutiny for providing the film on its platform.
The ADL has since called on Amazon to do so, and was joined by the American Jewish Committee and a chorus of entertainment figures including Jewish celebrities like Mila Kunis and Mayim Bialik and Jewish studio managers like Haim Saban and Ben Silverman.
According to the Variety report, the ADL’s activism may have been one reason why Amazon declined to take action, as it would be “difficult from an optics perspective,” the outlet wrote, to bow to the demands of a Jewish group amid so many public figures declaring that Jews control the media.
Amazon has in the past removed books promoting pedophilia from its site after news reports, and after the Jan. 6, 2021, attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol it removed the white-supremacist novel “The Turner Diaries,” which contains violent antisemitic fantasies and is often used as a hate-group recruiting tool.
After briefly banning Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in 2020, the site then reinstated it while adding a disclaimer to the version sold on its site reading, “As a bookseller, we think it is important to offer this infamous work because of its historical significance and educational role in the understanding and prevention of anti-Semitism.” This version of the manifesto also includes an introduction written in the 1990s by the ADL.
Jassy’s position on the film is the latest example of major tech leaders debating their hands-off stances when it comes to moderating antisemitic content on their sites. In 2020, Meta’s Jewish CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to remove Holocaust denial from Facebook, reversing an earlier stance that said it wasn’t the company’s place to do so. More recently, newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk has taken steps to loosen previous restrictions of antisemitic content on the social media site, including by reinstating Kanye West’s account.
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The post Amazon will not pull antisemitic movie promoted by Kyrie Irving, says Jewish CEO appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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UK Police Charge Two Men in Connection with Filming Antisemitic TikTok Videos
The TikTok logo is pictured outside the company’s US head office in Culver City, California, US, Sep. 15, 2020. Photo: REUTERS
British police have charged two men with religiously aggravated harassment offenses after they were alleged to have traveled to a Jewish area of north London to film antisemitic social media videos.
The two men, Adam Bedoui, 20, and Abdelkader Amir Bousloub, 21, are due to appear at Thames Magistrates’ Court, a statement from the Crown Prosecution Service said on Saturday.
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US Imposes Sanctions on Companies It Accuses of Aiding Iran’s Weapons Sector
A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, Jan. 20, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The US Treasury on Friday announced sanctions against 10 individuals and companies, including several in China and Hong Kong, over accusations they aided Iran’s efforts to secure weapons and the raw materials needed to build its Shahed drones and ballistic missiles.
The Treasury move, first reported by Reuters, comes days before US President Donald Trump plans to travel to China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping and as efforts to end the war with Iran have stalled.
In a statement, Treasury said it remained ready to take economic action against Iran’s military industrial base to prevent Tehran from reconstituting its production capacity.
Treasury said it was also prepared to act against any foreign company supporting illicit Iranian commerce, including airlines, and could impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions that aid Iran’s efforts, including those connected to China’s independent “teapot” oil refineries.
Brett Erickson, managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, said Treasury’s actions were aimed at cracking down on Iran’s ability to threaten ships operating in the Strait of Hormuz and regional allies.
Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow chokepoint between Iran and Oman through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas passes, after the US and Israel attacked a large number of targets in Iran on February 28. Shipping through the crucial waterway has ground to a near halt since the war began, sending energy prices sharply higher.
Iran is a major drone manufacturer and has the industrial capacity to produce around 10,000 a month, according to the British government-fund Center for Information Resilience.
Erickson said the sanctions were still narrowly focused, giving Iran more time to adapt and reroute procurement to other suppliers. Treasury was also not yet going after Chinese banks that were keeping Iran’s economy going, he added.
The companies facing sanctions include:
• China-based Yushita Shanghai International Trade Co Ltd for facilitating acquisition efforts for Iran to purchase weapons from China.
• Dubai-based Elite Energy FZCO for transferring millions of dollars to a Hong Kong company to aid the procurement effort.
• Hong Kong-based HK Hesin Industry Co Ltd and Belarus-based Armory Alliance LLC for working as intermediaries in the procurements.
• Hong Kong-based Mustad Ltd for facilitating weapon procurement by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
• Iran-based Pishgam Electronic Safeh Co for procuring motors used in drones.
• China-based Hitex Insulation Ningbo Co Ltd for supplying materials used in ballistic missiles.
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Gaza Flotilla Activists to Be Released From Israel Detention and Deported
Brazilian Activist Thiago Avila, who was detained aboard the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters, appears at a court in Beersheba, southern Israel May 6, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Two activists arrested last month when Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound flotilla they were traveling on are expected to be deported in the coming days after being released from security detention on Saturday, their lawyers said.
Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli authorities on April 29 and brought to Israel.
The activists were part of a second Global Sumud Flotilla launched from Spain on April 12 to try to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza by delivering aid to the enclave.
Israel’s foreign ministry said Abu Keshek was suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organization and Avila was suspected of illegal activity. Both denied the allegations.
BRAZIL AND SPAIN SAID THE DETENTION WAS UNLAWFUL
The governments of Spain and Brazil said Abu Keshek’s and Avila’s detention was unlawful, but Israel’s Ashkelon Magistrate’s Court remanded them in custody until May 10.
Human rights group Adalah, which has assisted in their legal defense and also said the detention was unlawful, said that Abu Keshek and Avila were informed that they will be released from detention on Saturday and handed over to immigration authorities’ custody until their deportation.
“Adalah is closely monitoring developments to make sure that the release from detention goes ahead, followed by their deportation from Israel in the coming days,” the group said. Israeli officials were not immediately reachable for comment.
Israeli authorities held them under suspicion of offenses that included aiding the enemy and contact with a terrorist group.
Gaza is largely run by Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.