A video game allowing players to reenact the massacre by Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has been banned from Great Britain.
But Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor emeritus, told Newsmax on Friday that no matter how disgusting, offensive and antisemitic the game might be, it should not be banned in the U.S.
“First of all, it is overtly antisemitic,” Dershowitz told “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.” “It has nothing to do with what's going on in Gaza.
"This isn't a game about whether there's starvation in Gaza or whether Israel engaged in overreaction in Gaza. It's a game about Oct. 7. The game takes place before Israel ever fired a single shot into Gaza. So, of course, it's antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, and of course, the government shouldn't ban it.
“What should happen is that people like you and me, who have friends who make games, should make a better game that portrays the situation from the point of view of honesty and decency, and let the two games compete in the marketplace of ideas.
"Now, the marketplace of ideas doesn't always produce good results. The horrible game which this is might prevail because it's so bloodthirsty and full of lies, and [gamers] might find it more interesting. But the answer to bad speech is always good speech, never government censorship. So, I'm not on the side of England on this. I'm on the side of the United States.”
The Valve Corporation removed the game from the Steam digital marketplace in the United Kingdom at the behest of Britain’s Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday.
The game, originally titled "Fursan Al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," was released in 2022. On Nov. 11, the game’s creator, Nidal Nijm, a Brazilian national with Palestinian family ties, released an update that allows the player to “relive the iconic day on which the brave Palestinian Resistance humiliated Israeli Military Forces,” referring to the Oct. 7 massacre, according to the Post.
The update, titled “Operation Toufan Al-Aqsa,” is a homage to Hamas’ name for the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history. The trailer features terrorists paragliding into Israeli posts, female soldiers being captured, countdowns of “Zionists left,” gory headshots, and widespread usage of red inverted triangles as target markers.
“The First Amendment is designed not only to protect horrible, horrible things, but also new things that weren't thought of by the framers of the Constitution,” Dershowitz said. “And so, we're seeing social media and games being used to promote antisemitism.
"My question is what the media would do and what governments would do if this were a video game about enslavement of Black people and the lynching of Black people and it asked you to play the role of a Klansman lynching a Black person in the Deep South?
“Would we have the same attitude toward that? Because for me, I don't see any distinction between what the Klan did in terms of lynching people and what Hamas did in terms of raping, beheading, and lynching Jews.
"So whatever standard you would apply to the Klan as an individual or as a game-maker, you should apply to this pro-Hamas, pro-terrorism horrible game.”
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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