Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, an Israeli TV personality and the prominent wife of Silvan Shalom, Israel's interior minister and vice prime minister, tweeted a racially charged joke about President Barack Obama,
Politico reported.
"Do u know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak," tweeted Nir-Mozes before she was heavily criticized and subsequently deleted the tweet.
The Jerusalem Post noted that although Nir-Mozes deleted the offensive joke, Twitter followers had already taken screen shots of the message.
According to Politico, after sparking an uproar among social media users, Nir-Mozes proceeded to apologize numerous times via Twitter: Nir-Mozes added:
The Guardian noted this is not the first social media controversy the Israeli leader's wife has created. In 2012, she resigned from representing UNICEF in Israel when she posted messages to Facebook supporting Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza. She also referred to Palestinians as "people whose children are fed hate towards Israel ... who have it in their DNA to hate us."
The joke comes at a time when her husband's role in U.S.-Israeli relations is unusually strained due to tensions between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Politico reports.
According to the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Silvan Shalom was recently put in charge of "strategic dialogue with the United States."
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