Kanye West has marked his return to Twitter, after being banned for anti-Semitic posts, by tweeting the Hebrew greeting Shalom.
The rapper was welcomed back by Elon Musk, who consolidated his ownership of the platform during the weeks Ye was offline.
Shalom means ‘peace’ but can also be a greeting or farewell and the 45-year-old shared it with a smiley face.
A few hours beforehand, West had tweeted "Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked" to which Mr Musk replied "Don't kill what ye hate. Save what ye love".
Shalom : )
— ye (@kanyewest) November 20, 2022
Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked
— ye (@kanyewest) November 20, 2022
Mr Musk’s endorsement shows the change of direction the social media site might be taking under its new owner, with Donald Trump also being allowed back on after nearly two years.
West had been kicked off after posting "death con [sic] 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE" in October - after which he was also removed from Instagram - where he appears to not yet have been allowed back. He also lost lucrative sponsorship deals, including with Adidas.
He had not tweeted since November 4 when he announced a 30 day “verbal” fast as well as abstaining from sex and alcohol.
It seems West has broken his fast early and is intent on sharing his views with the world via Twitter, despite previously announcing he was buying Parler - a popular microblog among the right.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, was banned from the site in January 2021 when his messages incited protestors to storm the Capitol to support his claim he rightfully won, not lost, the 2020 election when Joe Biden defeated him.
But, unlike Wes,t it seems the US president will not be active having now launched his own replica site Truth Social.
His latest post from 2021 still reads: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
