Elon Musk is welcomed in Israel; Starlink in Gaza Might Need Israeli Approval Right Away

Elon Musk was welcomed by Israel on Monday, during which a tentative deal to utilize SpaceX’s Starlink communications in the Gaza Strip was announced. During the visit, some of the Palestinians detained by Israel and hostages from Gaza were freed, and Israel and Hamas declared a brief ceasefire.

Musk said last month that Starlink, his satellite network, will connect to reputable relief organizations operating in Gaza.Following the disruption of internet and communication services in the area, the help became essential. Starlink, a project being developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, intends to launch up to 42,000 satellites in its massive constellation in order to provide inexpensive internet connection to faraway locations.

Israeli Communications Shlomo Karhi opposed at the time, claiming that “Hamas will use it (Starlink) for terrorist activities”.

Karhi, however, said on Monday that there was a principled agreement between Musk and Israel. According to this agreement, “Starlink satellite units can only be operated in Israel with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Communications, including the Gaza Strip.” Elon Musk has not yet responded to it.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, Elon Musk was also given a tour of an Israeli kibbutz that had been completely destroyed by Hamas on October 7 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This discussion comes after their last meeting in California on September 18, during which Netanyahu asked Musk to strike a balance between defending free speech and opposing hate speech, especially in light of antisemitism on X.

Musk, who has 163 million reported followers on social media, supported an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X on November 15. Musk noted that the poster had spoken “the actual truth” when an X user made the accusation that Jews had been promoting “dialectical hatred against whites” and mentioned the “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.”

Major American corporations responded by pausing their ads on Musk’s social networking site, including Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal.

Since October 7, around 14,854 Palestinians have lost their lives in Gaza. The official death toll in Israel is 1,200.