Warning: Discussion of violence and rape.
Amy Schumer’s latest interview with Variety where she defends her controversial comments about Israel and Palestine is attracting further backlash.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, at least 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli counterattacks — including 13,000 children.
It is unclear how many Israeli hostages from the over 200 taken by Hamas remain. According to Human Rights Watch, Israel holds around 7,000 Palestinians in detention, the majority of which have never been convicted of a crime.
As Amy has been incredibly outspoken about the topic, let’s take a moment to break down her quotes piece-by-piece to get a better understanding of the situation.
1.Amy: “The focus is so razor-sharp on Jewish people but not on Hamas…”
The idea that the mainstream discourse has somehow ignored Hamas feels out of touch with the way the ongoing conflict has been reported. Let’s take the New York Times as an example. According to a NYT staff memo obtained by the Intercept, the paper advises writers not to use the term “Palestine.” It uses the phrase “Israel-Hamas war” for its news page for updates. The word “Hamas” was used in at least 10 different headlines within the NYT’s news coverage over April 2024. In late 2023, the op-eds “There Should Be More Public Pressure on Hamas” and “I Might Have Once Favored a Cease-Fire With Hamas, but Not Now” ran. In March 2024, an op-ed blamed the 30,000 death toll in Palestine on Hamas.
I can continue on with other examples from other newspapers, but you get the gist.
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
2.Amy: “…So I’d recommend people read a book…”
There is a persistent idea that those criticizing Israel are simply coming from a position of being uninformed (such as the person who once emailed me the Wikipedia link to Hamas). Still, the people advocating for Palestine include academics and professors at the highest-ranking universities in the world, who, one can assume, have read a book or two.
Interestingly, Martin Luther King’s daughter encouraged Amy to read Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? after accusing her of misusing her father’s words on Israel.
Nbc / Nathan Congleton / NBC via Getty Images
3.Amy: “…Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby. Or anything — Jewish people wrote everything down.”
Of course, people can read any book that they want to gain an understanding of a topic or worldview. I would, however, caution against Noa Tishby as a neutral writer on the topic.
Noa accused artists such as Billie Eilish and Mark Ruffalo, who wore Artists4Ceasefire pins to the 2024 Oscars, of “furthering Hamas’ hateful agenda into the world,” “subconscious antisemitism” at best and “deliberate attacks against Jews” at worst. Amy herself “liked” this post and has shared other posts of Noa’s — such as one where she insinuates that student protests in favor of Palestine are connected to terrorist organizations and should be banned by the FBI.
It’s safe to assume that Amy’s point here is less about education and more about hearing more on Israel and Palestine from those she agrees with. Not all Jewish people are Zionists, so one could have easily recommended work by, say, Sara Roy.
Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images
4.Amy: “I don’t agree with anything that Netanyahu is doing, and neither do the Israelis I know.”
Amy seldom mentions Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on her Instagram account, but she did share a Regina Spektor post that says, “Netanyahu does NOT speak for all Israelis, or all Jews living across the world,” before saying in the following sentence that Israel is “the ONLY land where LGBTQ people are able to live safely. The ONLY land which doesn’t mandate women’s dress or behavior” in the Arabic world. Here, the vague criticism of Netanyahu is quickly swept over in favor of a homonationalist and femonationalist worldview in which a “progressive” Israel is allowed to do what they want in the face of what they consider a “backward” Arabic world. Never mind that queer people are far from truly safe in Israel, or that even a stellar womens’ and LGBTQ record could not be used as a shield for accusations of genocide…
But I digress. One way that Amy is remarkably similar to Netanyahu is in her rejection of a ceasefire. Just yesterday, Netanyahu said that Israel would invade Rafah “with or without” a peace deal.
Jacquelyn Martin / POOL/AFP via Getty Images
5.Amy: “Of course what’s going on in Gaza is sickening, horrifying and unthinkable.”
One might find it challenging to find this opinion obvious from Amy’s post history. For one, in October, Amy posted, then deleted, a comic mocking supporters of Palestine that held signs such as, “Gazans rape Jewish girls only in self-defense” and “Proud of our rapist martyrs.” Naturally, the insinuation that Gazans are rapists was not received well. She later posted on Instagram, “Hamas terrorists are who I’m talking about. No Gazans. Sorry I posted something that was hurtful to them.”
Again, Amy is against a ceasefire, so it remains unclear how she intends to remedy the “sickening, horrifying and unthinkable” situation beyond the continuing bombardment of Gaza.
Yahya HASSOUNA / Getty Images
6.Amy: “People get really mad at women. They save a special kind of vitriol for us. It’s not new. I think it’s because they fear women. That’s my guess.”
Amy has absolutely been the target of misogyny, and I have no doubt that there are some individuals who are using Palestine as a cover for their own sexism. However, it is disingenuous to imply that all criticism of Amy’s statements on Israel and Palestine is because she is a woman.
Steve Granitz / FilmMagic
You can read Amy’s full interview with Variety here.
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