(The Hill) – Rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, deleted all the content on his Instagram page Tuesday and posted a Hebrew-language apology to the Jewish community after years of antisemitic comments.
“I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions. It wasn’t my intention to hurt or disrespect, and I deeply regret any pain that I might have caused,” he wrote in Hebrew, which is not universally known by Jewish people.
“I am committed to starting with myself to learn from this experience in order to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding in the future,” he added.
Earlier this month, the rapper was filmed going on an antisemitic rant, including tropes about Jewish ownership of significant institutions. In the rant, he also compared himself to Hitler.
Last December, Ye went on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars show to praise Hitler and proudly declare himself a Nazi. He was kicked off Twitter, now X, the next day after he posted a photo of an interlinked Star of David and swastika.
The multi-platinum Grammy winner is expecting a new album in the coming weeks. “Vultures,” a collaboration with Ty Dolla $ign, is scheduled for a Jan. 12 release.
The album’s title track, released as a single in November, garnered criticism for a lyric where Ye brags about sleeping with Jewish women.
Just days before the antisemitic rant earlier this month, Ye was also spotted donning what appeared to be a black Ku Klux Klan hood at a Miami listening party for the new album.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff — who is Jewish — urged notable figures to step up and combat antisemitism Friday, perpetuated by rhetoric from Ye and others.
For “every horrible thing that [Ye] says, we need others to step up and … talk about not only that antisemitism is bad, but who Jews are, and the awesomeness of it,” he said in a Deadline interview.
“Right now, there’s a lot of discourse that’s not positive among groups. We need to bring all of these groups back together and fight this epidemic of hate together, because it is not just antisemitism, it’s Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQ hate — all these that we have been fighting, because it’s all connected,” he continued.
Tuesday’s post is not the first time Ye has apologized for antisemitic comments. He reluctantly apologized in a Piers Morgan interview in October 2022 after earlier antisemitic comments, when he said he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
“The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda,” Ye wrote in October, before the post was deleted.
