Twitter owner Elon Musk has been accused of anti-Semitism after he attacked banker and Holocaust victim George Soros on Twitter and in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, dpa reported.

Musk wrote on Twitter that Soros “hates humanity” and wants to “eat away the very fabric of civilization.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed the claims, saying they had “anti-Semitic overtones” and said they “instantly sparked a wave of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” on Twitter.

Asked about his statements in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday night, Musk said he was not anti-Semitic: “On the contrary, I am pro-Semitic to some extent.”

Elon Musk repeated his opinion about Soros: “I think it’s true. This is my opinion” and, referring to freedom of speech, added: “I can say what I want.”

92-year-old George Soros, who became famous for his philanthropy, is a favorite target of the American right.

Soros is a prolific donor to left-wing political causes in the US and has helped finance the election campaigns of left-wing prosecutors in several US cities. Right-wing critics have often attacked these prosecutors, accusing them of failing to root out crime.

Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said frequent attacks on George Soros fuel anti-Semitic conspiracy theories: “Soros is often targeted by the far right for anti-Semitic stereotypes as the source of the world’s problems,” Greenblatt tweeted. He also said that Musk’s choice of words is “dangerous” because “it will embolden extremists who are already inventing anti-Jewish conspiracies and, as a result, trying to attack Soros and Jewish communities.”