Steam offers video game where players can re-enact Oct 7 massacre in ‘protest against the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands’

Algemeiner reported that Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was originally released in April 2022, was updated to now allows players to recreate the actions of Palestinian terrorists, including attacking an Israeli military base with paragliders, just as Hamas did on October 7.

The trailer for the update features a narrator in Arabic saying: “Where are those who carry the explosive belts? Where are they? Come here, I want an explosive belt to blow up myself over the Zionists!!! It is a jihad, a jihad of victory or martyrdom!”

The outlet discovered gameplay footage on YouTube showing Palestinian terrorists chanting Allahu Akbar and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a call for the genocide of Jews and the destruction of Israel. Players can dress their avatars in terrorist keffiyehs and colors.

The Israeli forces in the game are targeted with an inverted red triangle above them, a popular video game feature for the enemy that has been incorporated into Hamas propaganda videos and vandalism.

When a player is killed in the game, the screen displays a bloody hand over a Palestinian flag and says, “You became a martyr. Rejoice, O mother of the martyr. Rejoice! Prepare your son for his marriage (in paradise), tie the band on all your pain and spread his wedding handkerchief, spread your anger against the oppressor, his injustice must be stopped.”

Before the update, the game already featured in the opening credits a Palestinian terrorist wearing a suicide bomb vest. The game’s narrator is identified as Abu Ubaida, an actual Hamas spokesperson for the terrorist organization’s al-Qassam Brigades.

He states in Arabic, “Today is the Day of Avenge. I will make you taste the pain and burn you like rats! We are people who never surrender, we either win or become martyrs, and both are victory,” as the terrorist detonates the bomb vest to kill Israeli soldiers.

Game developer Nidal Nijim, a Brazilian-Palestinian, said the game “is a message of protest against the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands,” in a disclaimer on the game.

In an interview with a YouTube game reviewer, Nijim claimed his “father is a former Palestinian fighter,” with US-designated terrorist group Fatah, previously led by mass murderer Yasser Arafat.

After Steam was contacted by the UK’s digital counter-terrorism unit, the game was blocked from use in the country. However, as of Monday, the game is still accessible for Canadian and American users on the platform and was even discounted and promoted for Black Friday.

The National Post noted that the International Legal Forum (ILF), a group that combats antisemitism, warned Steam’s parent company, Valve Corp., in 2021, that distributing the game may be a “direct violation of United States anti-terror laws and (be) subject to potential civil litigation.” ILF’s CEO Arsen Ostrovsky said that Steam not blocking the game may lead his organization to “consider pursuing immediate legal action.”

He told the outlet in a statement, “Fursan al-Aqsa is not a mere ‘game,’ but a display in utter sadism. In glorifying the barbaric atrocities of October 7th, the creator is effectively contributing to the recruitment and radicalization of potential terrorists and inciting them to recreate and carry out such gruesome acts of violence. This may place both the creator of the game and the distributor Steam, and parent company, Valve, in direct violation of Canada’s anti-terror legislation and Criminal Code.”

Ostrovsky continued, “Authorities in Canada should follow the lead of their British counterparts, where police and counter-terrorism authorities prohibited its sale across the U.K., due to concerns that such violent and extremist online material may be used as a tool to recruit potential terrorists and incite acts of violence.”