Candace Owens Happily Accepts ‘Antisemite of the Year’ Award in New Video

Far-right American political commentator Candace Owens has reacted to being named “Antisemite of the Year” by the US-based advocacy group StopAntisemitism, posting a video on Tuesday in which she ironically celebrated receiving the distinction. 

StopAntisemitism, which spotlights instances of Jew-hatred, on Sunday named Owens its Antisemite of the Year for 2024, pointing to the YouTube content creator’s repeated attacks on Israel and the Jewish community.

“From defending Hitler’s actions in Germany and mocking Jewish fears over Kanye West’s antisemitic tweets, to claiming Israel forces Muslims into segregated quarters and insinuating Hollywood is run by sinister Jewish gangs, Owens has been rightfully crowned 2024’s Antisemite of the Year,” the group said in its announcement.

In response, Owens posted a video dismissing the notion that she harbors anti-Jewish beliefs and criticizing pro-Israel organizations for allegedly watering down the definition of antisemitism. She argued that supporters of Israel aggressively smear any individual who does not approve of the ongoing war in Gaza, claiming that “Likud Party terrorists” are slaughtering innocent civilians in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave.

Owens gave a “thank you” to the various individuals who she claimed helped shape her views on the Jewish people, including multiple rabbis and Jewish public figures. She also claimed that it is difficult for people to provide a clear definition of antisemitism, rendering the issue difficult to actually identify. 

“It’s whatever they want it to be, whenever they want it to be, and you might be an antisemite today,” Owens said. 

The controversial media personality stated that the charge of antisemitism no longer maintains “any real meaning” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is actually the most prominent antisemite, because he has “murdered and killed and maimed more actual Semites this year” than anyone else. She claimed that Netanyahu has “manipulated” the American people into believing that Israeli Jews are “victims.”

Owens was fired from The Daily Wire, a conservative media company, earlier this year. Although neither the company nor Owens have released an official reason for her departure, many speculate that her repeated flirtations with antisemitic conspiracy theories enraged both viewers and Daily Wire leadership.

On X/Twitter, Owens accused Israel of committing a “genocide” against Palestinians as revenge for the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7. She has also compared Jews with “Marxists” and said they want to “rewrite history.”

The conservative firebrand has also slandered Judaism as a “pedophile-centric religion that believes in demons … [and] child sacrifice” and suggested that people refrain from criticizing Israel out of fear of their own safety, saying, “Do you think it’s normal … that basically, every person who speaks about Israel has to basically say a statement that … ‘you know, I don’t want to get killed?'”

Owens was temporarily suspended from Youtube earlier this year after she posted a sit-down interview with Kanye West, in which the rapper made a series of virulently antisemitic comments. Owens blamed “Zionists” for her Youtube channel’s deplatforming.  The provocateur’s channel was subsequently reinstated but has allegedly been de-monitized. She has also been banned from entering Australia and New Zealand over her past comments on Jews and the Holocaust.

In recent months, Owens claimed on her podcast that AIPAC, the foremost pro-Israel lobbying organization in the US, was behind the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy. During the same episode, Owens claimed that the US is being “held hostage by Israel.”

Weeks later, Owens promoted a series of talking points downplaying the atrocities of the Holocaust and said experiments by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele performed on Jews during World War II sounded “like bizarre propaganda.”

In September, she falsely claimed that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late spiritual leader of the Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch movement who was also known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, “preached Jewish supremacism.”

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