Prince Harry to hold event with anti-Zionist who defended Hamas terrorists
Jewish group blasts royal’s decision to speak with Gabor Maté, a Holocaust survivor who has compared Islamic terror group to Jewish fighters in the Warsaw ghetto
Britain’s Prince Harry is scheduled to hold a book promotion event on Saturday with a trauma expert who has identified as an anti-Zionist and compared the Warsaw ghetto fighters to Hamas terrorists.
Gabor Maté will join the prince for a virtual event to discuss the royal’s new memoir.
Maté, 79, is a Holocaust survivor who was taken from his mother in Budapest during the genocide and hidden with an aunt until the war ended. He later immigrated to Canada where he became a renowned physician.
He has long spoken of his journey from being a Zionist who believed in the need for a Jewish state after the Holocaust to becoming a harsh critic of Israel.
In an op-ed written during the 2014 Gaza war, Maté likened tunnels dug by the Hamas terror group to carry out attacks against Israel to those dug by Jewish participants in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
“The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto,” he said. “Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm.”
According to the UK-based Jewish Chronicle, Maté went on a livestream broadcast during the May 2021 Gaza war and said Hamas was “nothing compared to the terrorism of the Israeli government.”
He later told a podcast hosted by Russell Brand that Israel is “the longest ethnic-cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st centuries. It’s still going on.”
Maté has also defended Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn amid longstanding accusations of antisemitism against them, and has accused pro-Israel groups of weaponizing the term against pro-Palestinians.
Responding to news of the planned event, the Simon Weisenthal Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper told the Jewish Chronicle, “Whoever made the arrangements to have this individual appear with Prince Harry, did him no favors. If Prince Harry knew this man’s record and still chose him for the interview, our center would criticize the prince for such an inappropriate choice.”
It was unclear whether Prince Harry was aware of Maté’s views on Israel, and his publicist did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter from the Daily Mail.
The Times of Israel Community.