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An anti-Semitism watchdog has called on US President Joe Biden to fire a recently promoted staffer after his anti-Israel social media posts resurfaced amid the war in Gaza.

Israel-based analyst Eitan Fischberger noted that Cherry had used the hashtag #FreePalestine in the past and criticized the US government for selling weapons to Israel in old posts. “Cheersing in bars to ending the occupation of Palestine – no shame and f**k your glares,” Cherry wrote in 2014, according to a screenshot shared by Fischberger. The Biden staffer also reportedly praised activist Linda Sarsour, who herself had been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism.

Stop Anti semitism, a US-based NGO that tracks hatred against Jews and the state of Israel, urged Biden “to immediately reverse course on the hiring of Tyler Cherry and do a better job vetting the personnel he brings into his orbit.” The group argued that the Biden administration has a history of “embracing of anti-Semites.”

Cherry responded to the backlash by denouncing his past posts. “Past social media posts from when I was younger do not reflect my current views. Period,” he wrote on X, adding that he supports “this administration’s agenda.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has reported a 360% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the US since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. Biden condemned the surge of anti-Semitism in the wake of pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, where some Jewish students said they were harassed and threatened. “Too many people [are] denying, downplaying, rationalizing and ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7,” the president said in a statement last month.

At the same time, pro-Palestinian protesters have accused Biden of not pressuring Israel to agree to a ceasefire and end the war, which has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians since October.