An employee of a Long Beach, California Honda dealership has been fired after he posted a video to TikTok disguised as a religious Jew and calling himself a “MOTT” or “member of the tribe” in a sales pitch.
NGO StopAntisemitism publicized the video on social media, identifying “Shlomo” as a TikTok user with the handle “MikeMaali.” In the clip, Maali stands in a car lot wearing a kippa with the title “Shlomo the Slasher” on screen above a Palestinian flag.
“Want a good deal on a Honda? Come see Shlomo,” he says. “Shlomo will give you a good deal. MOTT, member of the tribe, baby. C’mon.”
SICKENING: @TikTok user ‘MikeMaali’ dresses up as a religious Jew, calls himself Shlomo and jokingly states he's a MOTT (member of the tribe) in order to sell Hondas in Long Beach, CA
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) February 7, 2022
Link (public as of this tweet): https://t.co/FWX6cFsQBG pic.twitter.com/LagkIJKcQo
Long Beach Honda responded later on Tuesday, saying, “We have terminated the employee in question and will not tolerate such conduct. This is not who we are as a company.”
“We value and respect all groups, organizations and individuals, knowing that together, we become better in our communities where we all live and work,” the dealership said.
Honda’s national headquarters also responded, saying, “Honda condemns discrimination of any kind, and we expect our independently-owned dealers to uphold our principles.”