Ex-NBA player Stephen Jackson. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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“The Jews are the richest. You know who the Rothschilds are? They control all the banks,” said Stephen Jackson during a round of appearances in which he defended DeSean Jackson

Former NBA player and current commentator Stephen Jackson has come under fire for defending recent social media activity by the NFL’s DeSean Jackson, which included claims that “white Jews” seek “world domination,” and praise for hate-preacher Louis Farrakhan.

Last week, DeSean Jackson posted a quote from a page in a book that included the following: “Hitler said, ‘because the white Jews knows that [African-Americans] are the real Children of Israel and to keep Americas [sic] secret the Jews will blackmail America.’ … Hitler was right.”

On Wednesday, Stephen Jackson weighed in on several Instagram Live broadcasts, defending DeSean Jackson against arguments that he should be fired for the posts on the grounds that another Philadelphia Eagles player, Riley Cooper, was not released for getting caught using a racist slur.

During one of Stephen Jackson’s Instagram Live appearances, he said. “The Jews are the richest. You know who the Rothschilds are? They control all the banks. They own all the banks.”

His host interrupted him and reminded him that the Rothschilds don’t represent the “whole Jewish community.”

Afterward, Stephen Jackson clearly denounced Hitler, but doubled down on his comments about rich Jews, claiming, “I haven’t said one thing that’s not true yet.”

One day earlier, Jackson appeared to address the Jewish community in a post stating, “Your race’s pain doesn’t hurt more than the next race’s pain. Don’t act like your hardships [are] more devastating then ours.”

Jackson also expressed his “love” for preacher Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who promotes anti-Semitic theories and claimed in a speech last year he “separate[s] the good Jews from the satanic Jews.”

Stephen Jackson has emerged as a significant figure in the Black Lives Matter movement and was personal friends with George Floyd, who was killed in May when a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on his neck for close to nine minutes.

Later on Wednesday night, Stephen Jackson appeared on CNN and said he did not “hate Jews” and “apologized for using the wrong words,” reiterating that he denounces Hitler.