Elon Musk has accused George Soros’s foundation of wanting to destroy western civilisation, as the tech tycoon prepares to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in California. Musk made the comment in reply to a post by a user sharing footage of people arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa from north Africa that referred to a “George Soros led invasion” of Europe. “The Soros organization appears to want nothing less than the destruction of western civilization,” X’s owner posted. Soros, a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, has been the subject of multiple antisemitic conspiracy theories. His Open Society Foundations, which supports civil society groups including some working on issues affecting the safety and wellbeing of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, is a regular target of the far right. Musk has been accused by civil rights groups of amplifying antisemitism on his platform – which he denies. He is scheduled to meet Netanyahu on Monday for talks that both men have said will focus on on artificial intelligence technology, and not the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), with whom Musk is feuding over antisemitism on X. However, the Washington Post reported last week that the meeting was the latest step in a campaign by Musk’s Jewish friends and allies to stave off the mounting criticism surrounding the increase in antisemitic speech on X. Musk has threatened to sue the ADL, a US-based civil rights group that campaigns against antisemitism and bigotry, and accused it of trying to “kill” the platform by “falsely accusing it and me of being antisemitic”. Civil rights groups, including the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the ADL, have issued findings that the volume of hate speech on X has grown under the stewardship of Musk.