7th October massacre game banned in Britain
British counter-terrorism police have banned a video game in which users play as terrorists invading Israel and are encouraged to murder “Zionists”.
The game, ‘Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque’, was removed from the gaming platform Steam, following a request from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.
The trailer for the game shows characters, dressed in Hamas-style clothing, including green headbands, entering an Israeli army base using paragliders. Images of Hamas terrorists using paragliders have become synonymous with its barbaric 7th October terrorist attacks in Israel last year, in which some 1,200 Israelis were murdered and over 250 people were taken hostage.
At the beginning of the trailer, text on the screen reads: “Where are those who carry the explosive belts? Come here, I want an explosive belt to blow up myself over the Zionists!” It continues, “It is a jihad, a jihad of victory or martyrdom!”
The trailer also contains a graphic scene where players line up Israeli soldiers and execute them.
The game’s Brazilian-Palestinian creator, Nidal Nijm, said his creation “allows you to relive the iconic day on which the brave Palestinian resistance humiliated Israeli military forces”.
An earlier version of the game reportedly included a scene of a terrorist beheading an Israeli soldier, before kicking their head into the air.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This game is repulsive. To reenact the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust for gameplay is sadistic. Such explicit depictions of real-life terrorist attacks against Jews also so obviously run the risk of further radicalising young people that you start to wonder if that’s the point. It’s absolutely right that this game is banned in the UK, given the alarming rates of extremism right now. Young people are already statistically more likely to have a favourable view of Hamas, the antisemitic genocidal terrorist group that carried out the barbaric attacks, according to our polling. We must make every effort to counteract these trends.”
Almost one in ten – 9% – of 18-24 year olds have a favourable view of Hamas, according to our representative polling.
