The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized Variety on Thursday for its digital feature about Hasan Piker, reframing the Twitch streamer’s comments about Gal Gadot as “known antisemite slams Israeli actress.”
In his interview with Variety, Piker, a fierce critic of Israel, was asked about a petition signed earlier this year by entertainment industry figures calling for the Academy to rescind its Oscars invitation to Gadot. The petition cited her “support for Israel’s military actions against Palestinians,” and among its signatories was director Mira Nair, the mother of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“I think she should be banned from the Oscars for being a dogs—t actress. I think she has no business being there for the crime of what she has done to not only the DC franchise, but really any movie she’s been a part of,” Piker said, when asked whether the petition was fair to Gadot.
“All jokes aside, Gal Gadot serves an important role in normalizing Israel as not a fascist ethno-state, but instead a place where a lot of beautiful women come from,” he further noted. “And those beautiful women happen to serve in the IDF, because there’s also this weird sexualization of the forces as well that takes place, and it plays another role in normalizing Israel and its activities and actions, and whitewashing it.”
The comments went viral on social media — a common occurrence for Piker — and the Simon Wiesenthal Center swiftly responded to one of Variety’s tweets promoting its interview with the streamer. “Breaking news: ‘Known antisemite slams Israeli actress.’ Variety, this is what you call news? Why elevate [Piker], a terror supporter who claims that ‘America deserved 9/11’?” the Jewish human rights organization asked on X. “Is your mission to inform or inflame?”
Breaking news: "Known antisemite slams Israeli actress." @Variety, this is what you call news? Why elevate @hasanthehun, a terror supporter who claims that "America deserved 9/11"? Is your mission to inform or inflame? https://t.co/vQh8VjHoKE
— Simon Wiesenthal Center (@simonwiesenthal) November 13, 2025
Variety declined to offer comment. The controversy notably comes after other outlets such as GQ and The New York Times have similarly covered Piker.
The SWC is also not the first organization to accuse Piker of promoting and engaging in antisemitism. In 2024, for instance, New York Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote a letter to Twitch calling for a probe into the increase in antisemitism on its platform, specifically citing a number of Piker’s videos as examples.
“These last two years, I’ve been called antisemitic. I abhor antisemitism, and I’ve spent my entire professional media career combating it. I just happen to be anti-Israel, and that makes me a far greater threat than the likes of Nick Fuentes because they know he’s a Nazi,” Piker told Variety. Later on, the Twitch streamer added, “There has never been a moment in my life where I ever considered Israel to be anything but a criminal enterprise.”
As for his oft-cited 2019 remark that “America deserved 9/11,” which earned him a short ban on Twitch, Piker said: “I was talking about blowback, a theory that has academic consensus at this point, that our meddling in the affairs of the Middle East has led to the blowback of 9/11. This wasn’t to say 9/11 is good. It’s a horrifying act of terror where 3,000 New Yorkers were slaughtered and even many more with the first responders that tried to save as many people as possible. Yet it was, of course, weaponized against me.”
On his Instagram Story, Piker acknowledged the Variety piece, writing, “Can’t believe they put my unfiltered takes in an article!!”
