New York Daily News

Roseanne bananas

Her ‘Planet of the Apes’ anti-Semitism claims are chimply wrong

- BY PETER SBLENDORIO

Roseanne Barr now insists her offensive tweet about Valerie Jarrett had nothing to do with race, and was instead her way of speaking out against antiSemiti­sm.

The actress posted a puzzling new explanatio­n Wednesday for her tweet calling Jarrett, who is black, the baby of “muslim brotherhoo­d & planet of the apes,” which led to the cancellati­on of her sitcom “Roseanne” more than two weeks ago.

“Rod Serling wrote Planet of The Apes. It was about anti-semitism,” Barr wrote on Twitter. “That is what my tweet referred to – the anti semitism of the Iran deal. Low IQ ppl can think whatever they want.”

Serling, who was Jewish, did indeed co-write the 1968 film “The Planet of the Apes” starring Charlton Heston, but the script was based on the novel “La Planète des Singes,” which was published by French author Pierre Boulle in 1963.

The film featured undertones that examine civil rights and race relations, but it does not explicitly address antiSemiti­sm.

Barr also retweeted a 2014 link from the website Haaretz that speculated whether the films symbolize Jewish people. The article contended that the chimpanzee­s in one of the newer movies were intellectu­als who get “discrimina­ted against and denied power and influence through the use of quotas — a position analogous to Jews in America, not long before the first Apes film was made.”

The most recent film in the franchise, 2017's “War for the Planet of the Apes,” featured the apes being imprisoned in camps.

The 65-year-old Barr posted the shocking tweet about Jarrett, a former Barack Obama adviser, in late May, and ABC pulled her show off he air hours later. Many condemned Barr for being racist, but the actress — who previously called the tweet about Jarrett a “joke” — also refuted that Wednesday.

“I want u all2 know I'm fine. I've been using this time2 reflect &2 gain insight on what I said & how it was misunderst­ood.. Needless2 say I'm NOT what people have accused me of! I've never practiced ‘RACISM' in my entire life & never will,” she tweeted.

She also wrote that Thomas Muhammad, who directed the documentar­y “Malcolm X: An Overwhelmi­ng Influence on the Black Power Movement,” agreed to speak on her behalf.

 ?? INVISION/AP; GETTY ?? Roseanne Barr (above) now insists her offensive tweet about Valerie Jarrett (right) had nothing to do with race, and was somehow a way of speaking out against anti-Semitism.
INVISION/AP; GETTY Roseanne Barr (above) now insists her offensive tweet about Valerie Jarrett (right) had nothing to do with race, and was somehow a way of speaking out against anti-Semitism.

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