Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has chosen Green Party candidate Jill Stein over former President Donald Trump, although Stein has rebuked the endorsement.

Duke, an anti-Semitic white supremacist, said the candidates’ positions on Israel led him to make “one of the most important statements I have ever made politically.”

“I support the American Green Party’s candidate for president, Dr. Jill Stein,” Duke said on his radio program Monday. “While Dr. Stein and I clearly disagree on important issues, she is the only candidate who is clearly speaking out against the war in the Middle East.”

Duke acknowledged that his support for the far-left candidate would “shock” his supporters, but said his decision was based on what is “good for white people, Europeans and all humanity.”

He said Stein was the only major candidate “brave enough to denounce Israel’s mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza, the genocide currently underway and the damage it is causing to the American people.”

Stein said she rejected Duke’s endorsement.

“A racist troll has ‘endorsed’ our campaign to draw attention to himself, and certain smear mongers are happy to use this troll to attack us,” Stein wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Of course, I reject any ‘endorsement’ of a white supremacist like David Duke, unlike Kamala Harris who can’t stop bragging about her support of white supremacist mass murderer Dick Cheney.”

Cheney, a lifelong Republican known for his optimistic defense of the Iraq war as vice president, announced last month that he would vote for Harris in November.

Stein’s campaign manager Jason Call said Newsweek Wednesday: “It should go without saying that we disavow any endorsement or association with Duke.”

Call added that the media “should be focused on the fact that Democrats are celebrating the support of Dick Cheney, the worst war criminal in recent American history, who has the blood of a million Iraqis and thousands of Americans on his hands.” the fact that the Democrats choose to keep Dr. To smear Stein using airwaves that should be public, not bought and paid for, instead of engaging in the honest debate the American people deserve.

After hours, the Harris and Trump campaigns have been contacted via email for further comment.

Israel’s years-long offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and caused a massive amount of destruction across the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reported, citing the Gaza Health Ministry. The reason for this was Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage.

South Africa filed a case with the International Court of Justice late last year, accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention through its military operations in Gaza. Israel has rejected the accusations of genocide, and the case is expected to take years to reach a final decision.

During his show, Duke denounced Trump’s “complete subservience to Israel and to the Jewish lobby in the United States.”

He also accused Trump, whom he supported in 2016 and 2020, of creating “a pulpit for Jewish extremism and Jewish mass murder.”

Duke also claimed that “Jewish supremacy on a global level, which has caused these genocides and these wars and this destruction of our economy, our morality, our society, the very essence of what we call Western civilization, is the greatest threat to us and the greatest is a threat to us. threat to all humanity.”

Update 10/16/24, 4:10 AM ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Update 10/16/24, 6:45am ET: This article has been updated with comments from Jason Call.