"Kanye was right" was spray painted alongside a swastika in a park in Melbourne, Australia last weekend, the Australian Jewish News reported Wednesday.
The graffiti, which was discovered at Central Gardens Park in Hawthorn, Melbourne, was reported by a Jewish man who is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. He was told by the local council that the graffiti would be removed this week.
“Tragically, the recent spate of antisemitic remarks by celebrities has emboldened bigots around the world, including here in Melbourne,” Daniel Aghion, President of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), said.
Kanye-inspired antisemitism
Similar incidents have taken place across the Jewish diaspora since American rapper Kanye West began an infamous antisemitic tirade – one that resulted in West winning the dishonorable title of "Antisemite of the Year."
A protestor carries a white supremacist and antisemitic sign outside the Kenosha County Courthouse on the second day of jury deliberations in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, US, November 17, 2021. (credit: REUTERS/EVELYN HOCKSTEIN)A banner declaring “Kanye [West] is right about the Jews” was hung over a Los Angeles highway in late October, according to white supremacist channels and an antisemitism watchdog NGO.
Another banner told drivers to “honk if you know,” and a third advertised Goyim TV, a YouTube clone dedicated to antisemitic, white supremacist and neo-Nazi video content.
Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dvir Abramovich told the AJN he is “not surprised” to see that “neo-Nazis have embraced Kanye West’s hate-filled and threatening comments against the Jewish community”.
“West is a blatant, unvarnished antisemite who deserves our condemnation,” Abramovich declared, adding that “West’s rhetoric is dangerous and will have real-world consequences.”
