Congressman Ritchie Torres Urges Steam to Remove October 7 Massacre Video Game

On Thursday, Congressman Ritchie Torres (NY-15) wrote to Gabe Newell, President and Co-Founder of Valve Corporation, regarding “Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” a video game available for purchase on Steam, owned by Valve, that allows players to control a Palestinian terrorist as they murder Israelis, including on October 7, 2023.

The letter reads as follows (PDF available here):

“Steam, owned and operated by Valve Corporation, is selling a video game—‘Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque’—that glorifies barbaric violence and terror against Jews. In the video game that your company shamelessly sells, players can re-enact the atrocities of October 7th, going on a genocidal rampage against Israelis and Jews. The acts of violence that players can commit with impunity includes beheadings and suicide bombings.

“Steam is selling a video game that represents nothing less than an open invitation of violence against Israelis and Jews. The complicity of a company like yours in normalizing the most monstrous forms of antisemitic violence and terror—like beheadings, suicide bombings, and the war crimes of October 7th—is as profound an abdication of social responsibility as anything I have seen from any company anywhere in the world.

“I strongly urge the Valve Corporation to cease the sale of any video games that promotes the normalization of violence against Jews. Antisemitism is not a business model from which to profit. It is a demon that must be exorcised from the soul of humanity.”