On Wednesday’s edition of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, temp host Michelle Wolf baselessly claimed that there is censorship of “Palestinian voices” and those critical of Israel. Maybe she just meant the non-platforming of the unintelligent as she also asked MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan why Israel is bombing Gaza if Hamas’s leaders are in Qatar.
Wolf proclaimed, “there's been a lot of censorship around the Palestinian voices and people who are even pushing against what Israel's actions in Gaza. You know, in real censorship, too, you know like on Meta platforms, you know, being prohibited from saying anything, I don't know, satirical news programs. So how are you supposed to argue or debate or even advocate for a people if you are not allowed to speak on it?”
The media has constantly had on Palestinians and other critics of Israel to spread lies about it and social media is also full of such voices. Of course, the media includes Hasan and his MSNBC show, which he pointed out while trying to agree with the premise:
On the conflict you mentioned, I am someone who has a show on television, right? Sometimes I'm on social media saying, ‘well, what about the media, right?’ Maybe I can do something different and do a show on MSNBC, I do a show on Peacock. And my thing is, I will try to platform as many voices as possible. So on my show, we have Israeli government officials. We've had people who lost people to Hamas on October the 7th in that horrific attack and we’ve had ordinary Palestinians from on the ground in Gaza. And my worry is that we rightly as a media humanize those victims of the conflict on October the 7th, as we should because what happened on October the 7th is horrific. But we don't always, as a media, especially in the United States and the West, also humanize the Palestinian people.
As for the conflict itself, Wolf would follow up, “One of the things I've been wondering about, if leaders of the Hamas are in the Four Seasons in Qatar, and Israel wants to rid the world of Hamas -- and as much as I love a Four Seasons -- why the constant bombardment of Gaza and why not go to them?”
Of course, Hamas has leaders in Gaza as well, not to mention its actual terrorist army and military capabilities, but after going through a list of mistakes the U.S. made in Afghanistan that he argued Israel is repeating in Gaza, Hasan claimed, “So, let's be careful before we decide that the solution is that we can drop a bomb or fire a bullet. This is a political problem. It's a problem of occupation. It's a problem of injustice. It's a problem that goes back decades, right? And you cannot resolve it with dropping, what, 6,000 pounds of bombs or whatever it is in the space of a few weeks.”
Hamas doesn’t care about 1967, it cares about 1917, but Hasan’s misdiagnosis of the problem led him to add, “And, look, I just want to say one important point on this, people, you know, in times like this, we get into our teams, we take up sides. Everyone is in a polarized moment arguing. At a time like this, the number one bias we should have is not political or religious. It should be humanitarian.”
And what does humanitarianism look like when one side commits terrorism on October 7, but the other is shamed for fighting back because this is “a political problem”?
Here is a transcript for the November 29 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
11/29/2023
11:21 PM ET
MICHELLE WOLF: Obviously, there’s, you know, a lot of debate, a lot of discussion on -- it is a tense time in the world. And in particular, there's been a lot of censorship around the Palestinian voices and people who are even pushing against what Israel's actions in Gaza. You know, in real censorship, too, you know like on Meta platforms, you know, being prohibited from saying anything, I don't know, satirical news programs. So how are you supposed to argue or debate or even advocate for a people if you are not allowed to speak on it?
MEHDI HASAN: It's a great question. One of the reasons I wrote the book was because we have not just a lot of censorship right now in the world, in our societies, in the press, but of course, foreign conflicts, domestic politics. We have a former president who threatens the network I work for, threatens the free press every day and I think, look, on the conflict you mentioned, I am someone who has a show on television, right? Sometimes I'm on social media saying, "well, what about the media, right?" Maybe I can do something different and do a show on MSNBC, I do a show on Peacock. And my thing is, I will try to platform as many voices as possible. So on my show, we have Israeli government officials. We've had people who lost people to Hamas on October the 7th in that horrific attack and we’ve had ordinary Palestinians from on the ground in Gaza. And my worry is that we rightly as a media humanize those victims of the conflict on October the 7th, as we should because what happened on October the 7th is horrific. But we don't always, as a media, especially in the United States and the West, also humanize the Palestinian people.
So, I’ve tried to get people from all walks of life: Palestinian analysts, journalists, doctors, real people and I think if you dehumanize any people -- we see that in America right now. Rising anti-Semitism, rising Islamophobia. If you dehumanize a people, you end up with what happened in Vermont over the weekend. Three young men of Palestinian descent shot in what is being looked at as a possible hate crime. A 6-year-old boy, in Illinois, Wadea Al Fayoume, stabbed to death 26 times in front of his mother in what is being charged as a hate crime. So, dehumanization is a thing we all have to avoid even in the most toughest and heated of debates.
WOLF: Michelle: Yeah, because obviously, I mean, we’re all people and it’s important to, like you said—
HASAN: Not obvious to everyone, sadly.
WOLF: Sadly, you are correct. Sadly, it's not obvious and I want to talk a little bit more about what is going on in the Middle East. One of the things I've been wondering about, if leaders of the Hamas are in the Four Seasons in Qatar, and Israel wants to rid the world of Hamas -- and as much as I love a Four Seasons -- why the constant bombardment of Gaza and why not go to them?
HASAN: I have to say, I don't know if you saw, I think it was the Four Seasons that put out a tweet saying, "We have no guests here who are part of Hamas." Look, Twitter has very few roles left under Elon Musk but preventing a prominent hotel chain from getting droned is a pretty good use of Twitter.
Look, I don't think there are military solutions to political problems. I’m someone who covered Afghanistan for 20 years when we went in with righteous rage having been the victims of horrific crime. We didn't think about what's going to happen the day after. We didn't think about what's a long-term plan. We didn't think are other people going to welcome us? Twenty years later, we left with our tail between our legs, loads of people dead, and the Taliban still run Afghanistan.
So, let's be careful before we decide that the solution is that we can drop a bomb or fire a bullet. This is a political problem. It's a problem of occupation. It's a problem of injustice. It's a problem that goes back decades, right? And you cannot resolve it with dropping, what, 6,000 pounds of bombs or whatever it is in the space of a few weeks.
And, look, I just want to say one important point on this, people, you know, in times like this, we get into our teams, we take up sides. Everyone is in a polarized moment arguing. At a time like this, the number one bias we should have is not political or religious. It should be humanitarian.
WOLF: Of course.
HASAN: It should be human. What is happening in Gaza right now -- I don't care whether you're Muslim, Christian, Hewish, whatever. Like, the U.N. Is saying it's the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. You know, the Pope is calling it terrorism. His word, not my word. I don't know if he is going to get canceled for that. He probably will be in the next Scream movie, but it’s really, really bad.
