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Jewish man sues Elon Musk for suggesting he is a white supremacist

(JTA) – A Jewish man who recently graduated college has sued billionaire Elon Musk for insinuating on his social media network, X, that the man was a member of a white supremacist group.
Ben Brody, 22, is suing Musk for libel after the tech mogul reacted repeatedly to a photo of him this summer on X, formerly known as Twitter. In a post accompanying the photo, a user on the platform speculated that Brody was (or was posing as) a member of the Rose City Nationalists, an extremist group in Portland, Oregon, with ties to white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
The photo of Brody, who graduated from the University of California, Riverside, earlier this year, was actually taken at his Jewish college fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi.
“Given his Jewish heritage, Ben was understandably horrified at being accused by Musk of donning neo-Nazi regalia, an act that would be utterly profane and blasphemous if it were true,” reads the complaint in Brody’s lawsuit, filed Monday in a district court in Austin, Texas, in the county where Musk lives. The complaint continues, “Ben has suffered severe emotional harm and enormous damage to his reputation and public image.”
The lawsuit is the latest antisemitism-related controversy on X, formerly known as Twitter, since Musk’s takeover of the platform last fall. In recent months, Musk has launched a series of attacks on the Anti-Defamation League by engaging with posts by white supremacists and claiming that an advertiser boycott spearheaded by the Jewish civil rights group has been responsible for depleting the company’s value.
In recent livestreamed meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a group of largely conservative-leaning Jews, Musk defended his record of combatting antisemitism on X while saying he was adhering to free-speech principles.
Musk frequently reacts to posts espousing conspiracy theories on his platform, and his engagement with the tweets about Brody followed a similar pattern. Following a physical altercation in Portland in June between the Rose City Nationalists and the Proud Boys, a rival right-wing extremist group, Musk asked his millions of followers to verify the identities of the group’s members caught on video.
“Who were the unmasked individuals?” he wrote on June 25. One account dug up Brody’s AEPi photo and claimed he was one of the “unmasked” members, posting the image next to a screenshot from a video of the brawl. Musk replied, “very odd” to the image.
In another instance, he replied “Always remove their masks,” to the same set of images.
After Brody posted an Instagram video seeking to clear his name and shared debit card receipts to demonstrate he was in California at the time of the incident, multiple users tried to tell Musk he had the wrong man.
“All these accusations are kind of just crazy and incorrect,” Brody said in the video, posted on June 26. “My family and I are just being harassed completely and I would be more than happy to clear up any confusion if necessary. This is just so ridiculous and I really just can’t believe this is happening to me right now.”
But Musk continued to promote the theory, writing in a follow-up post on June 27, “Looks like one is a college student (who wants to join the govt),” echoing language from a biography of Brody from his fraternity. Musk added, “a probable false flag situation,” seemingly suggesting the warring extremists were government plants.
These tweets were tantamount to libel, Brody’s suit alleges. Musk’s statements “convey a defamatory meaning” and “exposed him to public hatred, contempt and ridicule,” the suit reads. Brody seeks damages of at least $1 million and a jury trial.
The legal battle will be difficult, as Musk has already beaten one libel charge involving his tweets. In 2019 a federal jury rejected a claim brought by a British cave explorer whom Musk called a “pedo guy,” short for pedophile, after the two feuded over the best course of action for the previous year’s high-profile cave rescue of a youth soccer team in Thailand.
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The post Jewish man sues Elon Musk for suggesting he is a white supremacist appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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‘Fine Scholar’: UC Berkeley Chancellor Praises Professor Who Expressed Solidarity With Oct. 7 Attacks

University of California, Berkeley chancellor Dr. Rich Lyons, testifies at a Congressional hearing on antisemitism, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on July 15, 2025. Photo: Allison Bailey via Reuters Connect.
The chancellor of University of California, Berkeley described a professor who cheered the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre across southern Israel a “fine scholar” during a congressional hearing held at Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Richard K. Lyons, who assumed the chancellorship in July 2024 issued the unmitigated praise while being questioned by members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce, which summoned him and the chief administrators of two other major universities to interrogate their handling of the campus antisemitism crisis.
Lyons stumbled into the statement while being questioned by Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), who asked Lyons to describe the extent of his relationship and correspondence with Professor Ussama Makdisi, who tweeted in Feb. 2024 that he “could have been one of those who broke through the siege on October 7.”
“What do you think the professor meant,” McClain asked Lyons, to which the chancellor responded, “I believe it was a celebration of the terrorist attack on October 7.” McClain proceeded to ask if Lyons discussed the tweet with Makdisi or personally reprimanded him, prompting an exchange of remarks which concluded with Lyons’s saying, “He is a fine scholar.”
Lyon’s comment came after nearly three hours in which the group of university leaders — which included Dr. Robert Groves, president of Georgetown University, and Dr. Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) — offered gaffe-free, deliberately worded answers to the members’ questions to avoid eliciting the kind of public relations ordeal which prematurely ended the tenures of two Ivy League presidents in 2024 following an education committee held in Dec. 2023.
Rep. McClain later criticized Lyons on social media, calling his comment “totally disgraceful.” She added, “Faculty must be held accountable and Jewish students deserve better.”
CUNY chancellor Rodriguez also triggered a rebuke from the committee members in which he was also described as a “disgrace.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, CUNY campuses have been lambasted by critics as some of the most antisemitic institutions of higher education in the United States. Last year, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) resolved half a dozen investigations of antisemitism on CUNY campuses, one of which involved Jewish students who were pressured into saying that Jews are White people who should be excluded from discussions about social justice.
During Tuesday’s hearing Rodriguez acknowledged that antisemitic incidents continue to disrupt Jewish academic life, disclosing that 84 complaints of antisemitism have been formally reported to CUNY administrators since 2024. 15 were filed in 2025 alone, but CUNY, he said, has published only 18 students for antisemitic conduct. Rodriguez went on to denounce efforts to pressure CUNY into adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, saying, “I have repudiated BDS and I have said there’s no place for BDS at the City University of New York.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) remarked, however, that Rodriguez has allegedly done little to address antisemitism in the CUNY faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which has passed several resolutions endorsing BDS and whose members, according to 2021 ruling rendered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), discriminated against Professor Jeffrey Lax by holding meetings on Shabbat to prevent him and other Jews from attending them.
“The PSC does not speak for the City University of New York,” Rodriquez protested. “We’ve been clear on our commitment against antisemitism and against BDS.”
Later, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), whose grilling of higher education officials who appear before the committee has created several viral moments, rejected Rodriguez’s responses as disingenuous.
“It’s all words, no action. You have failed the people of New York,” she told the chancellor. “You have failed Jewish students in New York State, and it is a disgrace.”
Following the hearing, The Lawfare Project, legal nonprofit which provides legal services free of charge to Jewish victims of civil rights violations, applauded the education committee for publicizing antisemitism at CUNY.
“I am thankful for the many members of Congress who worked with us to ensure that the deeply disturbing facts about antisemitism at CUNY were brought forward in this hearing,” Lawfare Project litigation director Zipora Reich said in a press release. “While it is deeply frustrating to hear more platitudes and vague promises from CUNY’s leadership, we are encouraged to see federal lawmakers demanding accountability.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Fine Scholar’: UC Berkeley Chancellor Praises Professor Who Expressed Solidarity With Oct. 7 Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Huckabee Calls for Israeli Investigation Into ‘Criminal and Terrorist’ Killing of Palestinian-American in West Bank
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Scandal-Plagued UN Commission Disbands Amid Increasing US Pressure Against Anti-Israel International Organizations

Miloon Kothari, member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, briefs reporters on the first report of the Commission. UN Photo/Jean Marc Ferré
The Commission of Inquiry (COI), a controversial United Nations commission investigating Israel for nearly five years, has collapsed after all three of its members abruptly resigned days after the United States sanctioned a senior UN official over antisemitism.
Commission chair Navi Pillay resigned on July 8, citing health concerns and scheduling conflicts. Her fellow commissioners, Chris Sidoti and Miloon Kothari, followed suit days later. While none of the commissioners directly linked their resignations to the U.S. sanctions, the timing suggests mounting American pressure played a decisive role.
The resignations came just one day before the Trump administration announced sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian territories. Albanese was sanctioned over what the State Department called a “pattern of antisemitic and inflammatory rhetoric.” She had previously claimed that the U.S. was controlled by a “Jewish lobby” and questioned Israel’s right to self-defense. The sanctions bar her from entering the U.S. and freeze any assets under American jurisdiction.
The resignations mark a major victory for critics who have long viewed the inquiry as biased and politically motivated.
Watchdog groups, including Geneva-based UN Watch, celebrated the swift collapse of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), which they say had long operated with an open mandate to target Israel. “This is a watershed moment of accountability,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. “The COI was built on bias and sustained by hatred. Its fall is a victory for human rights, not a defeat.”
The COI had faced heavy criticism since its formation in 2021. In July 2022, Commissioner Miloon Kothari, made comments about the undue influence of a so-called “Jewish lobby” on the media, said the COI would “have to look at issues of settler colonialism.”
“Apartheid itself is a very useful paradigm, so we have a slightly different approach, but we will definitely get to it,” he added.
The Commission was established in 2021 year following the 11-day war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas group in May. COI is the first UN commission to ever be granted an indefinite period of investigation, which has drawn criticism from the US State Department, members of US Congress, and Jewish leaders across the world.
Following the resignations, Council President Jürg Lauber invited member states to nominate replacements by August 31. However, it is unclear whether the commission will be reconstituted or quietly shelved. UN Watch and other groups have urged the council to disband the COI entirely, calling it irreparably biased.
The post Scandal-Plagued UN Commission Disbands Amid Increasing US Pressure Against Anti-Israel International Organizations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.