Florence Pugh condemns ‘appalling’ antisemitic banner in Los Angeles amid Kanye West row

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Washington Bureau Chief

Florence Pugh has joined the celebrities condemning a white supremacist group who voiced support for Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks.

Pugh joined singer Banks to call out the “apalling” scenes on 22 October, as the group hung a banner above a Los Angeles motorway voicing support for West.

Over the past few weeks, the Donda artist has shared a number of antisemitic comments and conspiracy theories on social media and in recent interviews.

The banner, which read “Kanye is right about the Jews”, was reportedly hung above Interstate 405 by the Goyim Defense League. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the organisation comprises a loose network of antisemitic conspiracy theorists.

Photographs also show people performing Nazi salutes next to the banner.

“Absolutely appalling,” Pugh wrote in her Instagram Stories, sharing a photo of the banner.

In a separate post she added: “Any form of hate speech only encourages it, it grows and spreads like a disease. Any whisper of antisemitism is dangerous and needs to be addressed and taken down.”

On Twitter, Banks retweeted a post reporting on the banner, alongside the message: “So devastating. F*** Kanye west.

“This is so dangerous what he is doing.”

West’s recent comments have seen fashion brand Balenciaga sever ties with him, just weeks after West opened Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week runway show.

Fashion publication Vogue has also reportedly indicated it will not work with West again.

On 19 October, West was asked by Piers Morgan in an interview whether he regretted writing that he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people”.

“No, absolutely not,” he responded. “I fought fire with fire. I’m not here to get hosed down.”

However, he later added that he was “sorry for the people that I hurt” and the “confusion that I caused”.

“I will say, I’m sorry for the people that I hurt with the Defcon... the confusion that I caused. I feel like I caused hurt and confusion and I’m sorry for the families that had nothing to do with the trauma that I had been through,” he said.

“Hurt people hurt people – and I was hurt.”

After perputuating numerous antisemitic stereotypes, West also recently claimed that he “doesn’t believe” in the term antisemitism.