Actor John Cusack apologizes for anti-Semitic tweet
The actor apologized for retweeting an anti-Semitic meme after he drew criticism online.
The image depicts a hand, stamped with the Star of David, pushing down a group of people. It included the quote, "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."
The BBC -- and offended Twitter users -- said that while the saying is often misattributed to the French philosopher Voltaire, it was in fact spoken by white nationalist Kevin Strom.
Cusack captioned it: "Follow the money."
Cusack initially brushed off the criticism, saying that he mistook "a bot" for an account that was advocating for the rights of Palestinians. At some point, he deleted the image. He wrote that he "made a mistake retweeting that" and that he is "anti-fascist in every respect."
Later, he wrote that "it's clear that even if it was Israel's flag & even if you don't have antisemitic bone in your body, it is still an antisemitic cartoon."
Hours later, he issued a fuller apology.
"I would like to express my sincere apologies for the insensitive and offensive graphic that I regrettably retweeted," he wrote. "Social media has always been a platform on which I have engaged to express my thoughts and opinions, however, the material that I shared does not now, nor has it ever, represented my views in any shape or form."
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