JERUSALEM: Israel said on Monday it had agreed in principle with visiting tech entrepreneur Elon Musk that his SpaceX company’s Starlink communications would be used in the Gaza Strip subject to Israeli approval.

The statement by Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi appeared to mark a reversal from his opposition last month to Musk’s proposal to provide Starlink support to “internationally recognised aid organisations” in Gaza.

Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan­yahu also “held an exten­ded meeting on the security aspects of artificial intelligence,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

“Senior security establishment officials in the fields of artificial intelligence and cyber participated in the meeting.” The American tycoon was also set to meet with President Isaac Herzog during his visit to Israel.

In an X post addressed to Musk, Karhi said he hoped the visit to Israel “will serve as a springboard for future endeavours, as well as enhance your relationship with the Jewish people and values we share with the entire world”.

In his Nov 15 comment on X, Musk added the view that the user who referenced the false “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was speaking “the actual truth”.

The theory holds that Jewish people and leftists are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants that will lead to a “white genocide.” Res­pon­ding to that comment, the White House condemned what it called an “abhorrent promotion of anti-semitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans”.

Major US companies including Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and NBCUniversal parent Comcast paused their advertisements on his social media site.

Diverse viewpoints

Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by nearly 400% from the year-earlier period, accor­ding to the Anti-Defama­tion League, a nonprofit organisation that fights antisemitism.

Antisemitism and Islamophobia have risen worldwide, including during the Gaza war.

Musk has said X should be a platform for people to post diverse viewpoints, but the company will limit the distribution of certain posts that may violate its policies, calling the approach “freedom of speech, not reach”.

Musk said he believed three things needed to happen in the Gaza situation, according to the president’s statement: to kill those who insist on murdering civilians, to teach the new generation not to murder and to try to build prosperity.

When they last met, in California on Sept. 18, Netanyahu urged Musk to strike a balance between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech.

Musk responded by saying he was against antisemitism and against anything that “promotes hate and conflict”.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2023