In recent weeks, Amy Schumer has been saying some pretty repugnant things in defense of the horrific bombing of Gaza.
Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp took to the comments to cheer her on vs the “haters” who aren’t fans of massacring families.
Obviously, this is a huge disappointment to a lot of Schnapp’s now-former fans.
This is not a surprise to those familiar with Schumer’s history. Having bad takes and loudly doubling down is a huge part of her brand. But, even for her, some of these posts are unspeakable.
Before we get into all of this, we can as briefly as possible discuss the terrible events that began nearly a month ago.
On October 7, Hamas — a polarizing militant organization that seeks to oppose rule by Israeli settlers — launched a brutal assault against countless Israeli citizens.
This was not a surgical strike at the IDF or any other military target. Attackers went after music festivals and other civilians. Though disinformation abounds, estimates say that more than a thousand people died, with hundreds of hostages.
That is a harrowing situation. Hamas says that the attacks are retaliation against Israel’s apartheid regime, but children and other civilians are not responsible for their government’s crimes. Most of us do not know how far we might go if we were living under apartheid. Hopefully, we can all agree that targeting children is simply a line that we would not cross.
Ordinarily, this attack would be the primary focus of any and all discourse for weeks to come. However, Israel’s response to the attack was to begin a massive and seemingly indiscriminate bombing campaign against the civilians of Gaza.
Estimates over a week ago said that 8,000 Palestinians had died. Tragically, those numbers have certainly grown.
Previously, human rights experts referred to Israel’s apartheid treatment of Palestinians as “peacetime ethnic cleansing,” characterizing Gaza itself as an “open-air prison” where Palestinians suffered under Israeli occupation for the crime of being born in a country that someone else wanted.
Now, that has changed — because the “peacetime” line no longer applies. About half of the private residences and a series of hospitals in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli bombings.
It is difficult to understand the pretext that these strikes are merely targeting Hamas. Particularly with thousands of children dead, and with members of Israel’s own government publicly declaring their intentions.
Both Hamas and the IDF have inflicted brutal violence, with innocent Israeli and Palestinian citizens slaughtered in the process. So why are people talking about one horrific atrocity more than another?
Maybe because one is ongoing. Maybe because the ongoing atrocity has claimed the lives of many more innocent victims. Or maybe because that’s also the side receiving money from the United States government as it continues its campaign of terror.
Or, if you ask some very out of touch people — like Amy Schumer — it’s another issue altogether.
Following October 7, comedian Amy Schumer posted nearly 50 intensely pro-Israel messages to her Instagram feed.
Obviously, in the immediate wake of Hamas’ attack, that made sense and was not at all uncommon.
But many of her posts took aim at anyone advocating for Palestinian rights. Others went further, seeming to characterize the innocent victims in Gaza the way that disgraced former president Donald Trump discusses any demographic that he doesn’t particularly like.
Some of Schumer’s posts are so vile that sharing them would be in poor taste. One suggested that “Gazans rape Jewish girls.” She was sharing someone else’s post, a political comic suggesting that advocates for Palestinian rights are naive and possibly antisemitic.
Obviously, countless people responded to Schumer’s atrocious posts — after she turned comments back on, that is.
There’s actually a pretty useful Twitter thread on Amy Schumer’s responses and some of her deleted posts.
Now, we have to tell you that Schumer has insisted that she does not intend for her posts to be Islamophobic.
She says that she hopes that Palestinians have “freedom from Hamas,” and “safety for Jewish people and Muslims as well.”
Schumer insisted that she is not a proponent of the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. At least, she says that “saying I’m Islamophobic or that I like genocide is crazy.”
Of course, Schumer also seems to suggest that she believes that people condemning her for her posts simply dislike her appearance.
She also becomes defensive about her family ties to Senator Chuck Schumer, one of our government’s most infamously pro-Israel politicians. (Am I misremembering, or did it come up on the episode of The Good Wife where the Senator guest starred as himself?)
They are second cousins. Obviously, making statements in defense of an apartheid state’s war crimes against a captive civilian population is not genetic. It’s possible that they arrived at their dubious positions on this terrible conflict entirely separately. It happens.
Allegedly, Schumer got messy enough to DM people — including actress Asia Jackson — to confront her about merely commenting on her previous posts.
At one point, Schumer mischaracterized some of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an apparent attempt to defend the Israeli government’s actions. This resulted in a callout by none other than Bernice King.
When you post a video of MLK to support your view and his actual family calls you out on it, it’s probably time to pack it in. Or at least to cite another source.
That said, she probably should have reconsidered her position after writing “Islamic Jihad missile.” Or better yet, before! (But it’s never too late to start being a good person, fyi)
Unfortunately, Schumer is far from the only clown at this particular circus. Sarah Silverman said some atrocious things (even for her) last month. And actors like Criminal Minds alum Kirsten Vangsness and Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp decided to throw in their lots with Schumer.
It’s not really a surprise to see so many bad takes. Political literacy in international matters is fairly abysmal, and not only in the United States.
And, to be fair, some of the people condemning Israel on social media are not doing it for the right reasons. Neo-Nazis have been attempting to co-opt the discussion, not because they see Palestinians as people, but because they hate all Jews and want to single out Israel’s current actions. (Obviously, Israel does not represent the global Jewish population, and even its own citizens have protested the bombings)
One of the hallmarks of proponents of genocide is sampling real wrongdoings by members of a group, then boosting these stories to justify the horrors that follow. This is as true of antisemitic fascists in America as it is of Netanyahu’s regime.
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