Rapper Ice Cube will be a headline speaker at the annual gala of the Zionist Organization of America — the nation’s oldest pro-Israel organization — after he was called out for sharing anti-Semitic images on social media earlier this year.
“‘I gotta say it was a good day’ when my friend Cube readily and happily agreed to speak at our ZOA Gala,” ZOA president Morton Klein said in a statement, quoting one of the rapper’s best known hits.
The 51-year-old activist and Klein forged a friendship after Cube was accused of anti-Semitism in June when he shared a string of images and memes amplifying anti-Jewish tropes including a Star of David enveloping a black cube.
Klein reached out to Cube in July and the pair had a two-hour conversation where they both disavowed racism, Klein said in a tweet.
“We both grew up poor in Black hoods. Cube told me he thanked Jews for starting NAACP, many Black schools & fighting for Black civil rights,” Klein wrote.
“Cube told me he supports condemning Black & all antisemitism & I condemned all racism,” he added.
The rapper, whose real name O’Shea Jackson, helped President Trump develop his $500 million “Platinum Plan” to invest in black communities across the country, and recently met with White House adviser Jared Kushner to discuss black empowerment.
This article was originally published in the New York Post.