Hasan Piker. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Organizers of the 26th annual New Yorker Festival are being sharply criticized for inviting Hasan Piker, a rabid anti-Israel online influencer and one of Twitch’s biggest streamers, to be a speaker at the event despite his vast history of making antisemitic and anti-Zionist comments, as well as expressing support for US-designated terrorist organizations.

The New Yorker Festival, hosted by the magazine The New Yorker, will be held in New York from Oct. 24-26. Piker has been invited to participate in a roundtable discussion on the last day of the annual event about “how the internet has reshaped political life — and what it means for the future of democracy.” The Turkish American political commentator will speak on stage alongside podcaster Saagar Enjeti and New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz.

In a series of messages posted on X, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said The New Yorker‘s decision to give a platform to Piker “is the latest example of mainstream media normalizing his brand of antisemitism and anti-Zionism.”

“Piker’s toxic and extreme rhetoric opposing Zionism and the Jewish state normalizes #antisemitism, reinforces bigotry, and launders terror – and it has no place at a conference devoted to prominent influencers,” the ADL added. The Jewish civil rights group additionally called Piker’s invitation to the festival “deeply ironic” considering that the event will also feature novelist Salman Rushdie, who has received death threats for decades from the Iranian regime that supports Hezbollah and the Houthis – two US-designated terrorist groups that Piker has publicly praised.

Piker, who has 2.9 million followers on Twitch, has compared Yemen’s Houthis to Holocaust victim Anne Frank, broadcast propaganda videos from the Houthis during his Twitch livestreams, and defended terrorist actions by the Houthis are “an act of resistance.” He also described Lebanese Hezbollah as a “resistance group” that is “successful” during a Twitch stream posted on Sept. 28, 2024, and added, “I don’t have an issue with them.” He has also said “America deserved 9/11,” and that “it doesn’t matter if rapes happened on Oct. 7,” referring to the Hamas-led deadly terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

“These extreme statements, and others, should permanently disqualify him from appearing at any major media festival,” the ADL stated in conclusion.

Piker justified the Oct. 7 attack in Israel and said he believes the terrorists were not motivated by antisemitism. “These aren’t barbaric monsters … it is not coming out of a place of antiquated antisemitic tendencies or that they wanted to go out and do mass rapes,” he said of the Hamas terrorists responsible for the attack.

“It doesn’t matter if f–king rapes happened on Oct. 7,” Piker also said during a livestream on May 22, 2024. “It doesn’t change the dynamic [of Palestinians and Israelis] for me.”

During a livestream on April 18 last year, Piker said he believes Hamas is the “lesser evil” in comparison to the Israeli military. He has also joked that a second “9/11” would be “so sick” and when asked during an interview what his favorite flag is, he replied, “Hezbollah.”

High-profile attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented victims of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein, told The Telegraph that The New Yorker Festival should not be hosting someone who plays down the rape of women that took place during the Oct. 7 attack.

“We should not provide mainstream forums for persons who may wish to normalize the concept that rape doesn’t matter, because I believe that rape always matters, not only to the victims of rape, but also to the status and condition and future of women and girls,” Allred said. “I also believe that persons who express hate speech should not be invited to prestigious round tables. Anyone who suggests that it doesn’t matter if rape happened, [that] should be sufficient to exclude a person from an invitation list to participate in the New Yorker round table.”

Allred told The Telegraph that although she believes “people with unpopular and extremist views have a right to express their opinions, I do not believe that a publisher has any legal obligation to provide a platform to such persons to express their views.”

Piker has been celebrated in profiles by Rolling Stones magazine, the New York Times and GQ. He is also a supporter of New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has repeatedly accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, and refuses to affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.

During a Twitch stream, Piker said any “Zionist entity” should be “treated in the same way as a rabid neo-Nazi, and you shouldn’t even let someone be the local dog catcher if they’ve ever exhibited any positive feelings about the State of Israel.”

At the 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine in August, he said “some of the worst people” in the world include “the Michael Rapaports of the world, the Amy Schumers of the world … Satan-yahu.” Both Rapaport and Schumer are proud Jewish celebrities and “Satan-yahu” is a clear reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The New Yorker Festival will be held from Oct. 24-26.