TEL AVIV – Roseanne Barr, the eponymous star of the recently nixed TV show, will visit Israel and deliver an address at the Knesset against the BDS movement next month.
Barr will be coming to Israel with longtime friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, whose organization the World Values Network is sponsoring the trip.
Barr was invited to speak to the Knesset on January 30 by Deputy Speaker Yehiel Hilik Bar (Zionist Union) according to a statement by WVN.
In the statement, Barr described herself as “a lover of Israel” and said the Jewish state is an “oasis of openness, freedom, democracy and tolerance amidst a desert of brutality from an age gone by.”
She added that she wants to “further my own knowledge of Jewish and Israeli history” and speak out “against the insidious and anti-Semitic BDS movement.”
Boteach said, “Bringing an incredibly proud Jewish woman like Roseanne to Israel will be a great boost to its citizens.”
A year ago, Boteach’s organization garnered headlines for taking out a one-page ad in the Washington Post slamming singer Lorde for succumbing to the boycott movement and canceling her concert in Israel. Barr at the time called to “boycott this bigot.”
In May, ABC canceled Roseanne after Barr tweeted a racist comment likening former Obama administration adviser Valerie Jarrett to a Planet of the Apes character.
Barr later expressed deep regret and remorse about her comments in an interview with the Jerusalem Post conducted by Boteach, saying she thought Jarrett was white.
“I’m a lot of things: a loud mouth and all that stuff. But I’m not stupid for God’s sake. I never would have wittingly called any black person and say they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that,” Barr said. “I didn’t do that. And people think that I did that and it just kills me. I didn’t do that. And if they do think that, I’m just so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry. … I have loved ones who are African American, and I just can’t stand it.”
“Valerie Jarrett, I don’t agree with her politics and I thought she was white, I did not know she was a black woman. When ABC called me and said ‘what is the reason for your egregious racism,’ I said, ‘Oh my God, it is a form of racism. I guess I didn’t know she was black, and I’ll cop to it, but I thought she was white,'” Barr added.
In the interview, Barr also said that she had tried to get a hold of Jarrett’s phone number to apologize personally.
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