Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Elon Musk is being falsely smeared after the tech billionaire made back-to-back straight-arm gestures reminiscent of the Nazi salute.

Mr Netanyahu came to his defence on X, the social media platform owned by Mr Musk, calling him “a great friend of Israel.”

“He visited Israel after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Mr Netanyahu wrote.

“He has since repeatedly and forcefully supported Israel’s right to defend itself against genocidal terrorists and regimes who seek to annihilate the one and only Jewish state.”

Mr Musk’s two one-arm gestures, conducted in quick succession, were made on stage during a speech celebrating U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.

The action ignited a furore online and in the media, with many likening it to salutes used by Nazis and fascists.

Others, however, said that his intent was unclear and too much was being read into it.

Mr Netanyahu did not specifically mention the controversy in his X post.

However, Mr Netanyahu’s post was made in response to a comment from Musk himself on Thursday.

“The radical leftists are really upset that they had to take time out of their busy day praising Hamas to call me a Nazi,” Mr Musk had written.

In an earlier comment on X, Mr Musk dismissed the comparison with Adolf Hitler as “so tired.”

(dpa/NAN)