Michael Rapaport shared another crazy rant on X, and this time, the actor claimed that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be “canceled” if he were alive today.
Rapaport shared clips of Dr. King speaking out against anti-Semitism and saying Israel has the right to exist. However, the “Higher Learning” actor caused a stir on social media with the caption of his problematic post calling King a “Zionist” who would be canceled if he was alive today.
“CANCEL THIS ZIONIST TODAY!!!! Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a #ZIONIST & there’s no doubt he would be cancelled if he was alive today!!!”
British lawyer and activist Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu quickly clapped back at Rapaport for his post and noted that King’s daughter, Bernice King, set the record straight once before after Amy Schumer shared a video of Dr. King speaking out against anti-Semitism.
The comedian shared the post amidst Israel’s bombing of Gaza, which has killed more than 24,000 people. The bombing began after Hamas attacked Israel and killed more than 1,200 people while taking hundreds of hostages.
“Amy: Certainly, my father was against antisemitism, as am I. He also believed militarism (along with racism and poverty) to be among the interconnected Triple Evils. I am certain he would call for Israel’s bombing of Palestinians to cease, for hostages to be released,” wrote Bernice.
Mos-Shogbamimu shared Bernice’s words with the caption, “Bloody hell! You bigots never stop. Now claiming MLK for the genocidal state of Israel is laughable. We can stand against antisemitism and OPPOSE Israel. You bigots would’ve accused him of being Hamas & antisemitic. Even MLK’s daughter had to set you fools straight – MLK would’ve oppose Israel’s militarism against innocent Palestinians and demanded ceasefire.”
Last November Mother Jones writer Garrison Hayes addressed the argument being made by Rapaport by writing in an article for the magazine, “We don’t have to imagine what King thought about Israel’s relationship with the Palestinian people. He spoke for himself.” Hayes followed with a quote from a 1967 ABC interview with King conducted not long after the Six-Day War in which Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank.
NEW video from @garrison_hayes: There's a dubious tradition of using MLK's words to justify anything. But we don't have to guess what he thought about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He can speak for himself: pic.twitter.com/zippJkS988
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) November 9, 2023
Fans also reacted to Rapaport’s rant as they chastised him for implying that Dr. King would condone how Israel is handling the Gaza war. One X user replied, “Wonder what he would have said if he was alive to witness Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians.”
Another user added, “He would’ve called Netanyahu a War Criminal,” while one replied, “Why are you always in Black people’s business?”
“This is disgraceful. Even a lowlife like yourself reached a new low,” noted another. After the “Cop Land” actor’s rant was shared on Instagram by The NeighborhoodTalk, one user aptly noted, “It’s ok to just be quiet.”
Rapaport also ruffled feathers last November when took to X to complain about calls for a cease-fire in Gaza. In the video, he claimed that if the hostages were Black, the “entire world” would be outraged.
“Yo, if 20 American tourists, forget the 1,200 people that were murdered, slaughtered, civilians, if 20 American civilians, all African American, all Black, all ages were taken hostage, and 10 of them were murdered and raped, and there was 10 surviving American tourist hostages that were all Black, there’s not one motherf—ker in this country that would be talking about cease fire,” he ranted.
“There’s not one person. It would be ‘Bring the f—king hostages back, and they better be, they better be alive! They better be pristine.’ There wouldn’t be no cease-fire, there wouldn’t be no — can you imagine college students ripping down posters of 10 Black people from America if they were taken hostage and 10 of them were raped and murdered?”
“The word ‘cease-fire’ wouldn’t even be in the vernacular,” he continued. “It’d be like, ‘Ravage the f—kin’ place until they come back, and they better come back safe and sound.’”
According to The Associated Press, two-thirds of the people killed in Gaza have been women and children.
