Billionaire venture capitalist and Trump father-in-law Josh Kushner dismissed online criticism of a tech executive who visited Israel and posted an image of a Tel Aviv beach on social media.
Kushner, the brother of President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, took to social media platform X on Wednesday to defend Patrick Collison, the co-founder and CEO of payment processing firm Stripe.
Collison, whose company is partly owned by Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive Capital, caused an uproar among pro-Palestinian supporters on X after he posted an image showing Tel Aviv’s beachfront promenade in a photo that it appears to have been done early Wednesday morning. .
“Great to be back in Tel Aviv. I lost this run,” Collison wrote.
Collison’s seemingly innocuous post went viral, generating more than 14,000 likes as well as thousands of comments — many of them from pro-Palestinian sympathizers who noted the thousands who have died as a result of Israeli military action launched after October. Massacres of the 7th, 2023.
Paul Biggar, a software engineer and pro-Palestinian activist, responded to Collison’s post by writing: “Ten people contacted me about this tweet. Sad day.”
Kushner wrote: “agree. saddened by how much hatred people have for jews. happy thanksgiving.”
Biggar, who called on his social media followers to boycott Stripe, responded to Kushner’s comment, writing: “Why do you think this is about Jews? This is about Israel and its occupation and genocide in Palestine.”
“It is a tactic of Israel and its supporters to label criticism of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and genocide against Palestinians as ‘anti-Semitism,'” Biggar told The Post via email.
“This is certainly absurd. Kushner is trying to silence criticism of a genocide.”
The Post has sought comment from Kushner and Collison.
It’s rare for Josh Kushner, 39, to weigh in on hot political issues. His social media page consists mostly of posts related to his business ventures, including Oscar Health, the health insurance company he co-founded in 2012.
In December of last year, he reacted to then-Harvard President Claudine Gay’s testimony before Congress in which she defended her administration’s handling of alleged anti-Semitic incidents on campus related to the Israel-Gaza crisis.
Kushner, who like his brother attended Harvard, wrote: “Congressional testimony speaks louder than tweets. Harvard is better than this.” The post included an emoji depicting a broken heart.
The Kushners are descendants of a prominent New Jersey family that built a multibillion-dollar real estate empire. Their father, Charles Kushner, is a real estate developer who founded the Kushner Companies with his father, the late Joseph Kushner.
The Kushner family practices Orthodox Judaism. Such is their adherence to religion that Jared and Josh Kushner’s famous wives — Ivanka Trump and supermodel Karlie Kloss, respectively — both converted to Judaism before tying the knot.
After October. 7, 2023 Massacres by Hamas Terrorists Josh Kushner wrote: “I am heartbroken by the horrific atrocities that took place in Israel this weekend”
“My grandmother witnessed her mother being murdered by the Nazis before her eyes because of her Jewish faith,” he wrote.
“It’s hard to understand that we still live in a world where hate is the answer. Killing innocent civilians is never justified.”
#Josh #Kushner #defends #tech #CEO #Israel #visit #Saddened #hatred #people #Jews
Image Source : nypost.com