Controversial commentator Candace Owens has been declared “Antisemite of the Year” by the organization StopAntisemitism, which announced that she received a record-breaking number of votes, surpassing all previous recipients.
“Candace Owens’ witch’s brew of antisemitism drew from vile medieval blood libels, including claims that Jews drink Christian blood, conspiracies that Jews are pedophiles who control the media and are ‘taking over America,’ and modern toxic anti-Israel hysteria,” stated Liora Rez, the founder of StopAntisemitism, in an interview with The Post.
“There is no psychotic rabbit hole too extreme for this poisonous hater.”
The antisemitism watchdog previously awarded this dubious distinction to figures such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in 2023, the rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) in 2022, and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in 2019. This year, the organization shared a compilation of Owens’ remarks, including her defense of Ye’s antisemitic rants and inflammatory claims about Israel, alleging that it had “occupied” the United States following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
“Jew-hatred is a symptom of a decaying society just as it is a rotting mind,” Rez declared.
“This dishonor is awarded to the individual who has done the most to endanger the Jewish community, and in 2024, Candace Owens has tragically and decisively earned the title,” Rez explained.
Among a large pool of nominees, Owens stood out for her consistent use of inflammatory rhetoric aimed at the Jewish people, gathering the most votes the organization has ever seen for this designation.
The polarizing conservative figure had previously dismissed her nomination for the “Antisemite of the Year” title.
“I feel like maybe [Israeli] prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu should’ve made the list because he’s killed more semites than anybody — did we forget Palestinians are semites,” she said on her program in November.
Owens, who began her tenure at the conservative media outlet The Daily Wire in 2021, officially left the company in March. While she is reportedly bound by a gag order preventing her from discussing the circumstances of her departure, her exit followed visible tensions with Ben Shapiro, the outlet’s co-founder and prominent podcaster.
During the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Owens faced scrutiny for liking a post on X that promoted a centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory suggesting that rabbis drank Christian blood.
Ben Shapiro, a staunch advocate for Israel, did not hold back in his criticism of Owens’ actions, calling her comments “absolutely disgraceful.”
Rez remarked that Owens has been “thankfully” disowned by many who previously supported her.
“But she is a cautionary tale for our nation,” Rez warned. “Just as Candace has deteriorated into insanity and irrelevance, so does every civilization where antisemitism flourishes.”
Since her departure from The Daily Wire, Owens has been hosting her own program, which she distributes across YouTube and other platforms.
However, she continues to provoke outrage with her controversial remarks about Jewish history. This summer, Owens downplayed the atrocities of Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele, insinuating that some accounts of his horrifying Holocaust experiments were exaggerated.
“The Nazis experimented on innocent people,” Owens said during the summer. “Some of the stories, by the way, sound completely absurd.”
Her statements have drawn condemnation on a global scale. In October, reports emerged that Owens had been denied a visa to Australia. Shortly after, New Zealand followed suit, though it has since reversed its decision.
{Matzav.com}