Hasan Piker, among the most-watched streamers on the platform Twitch, is coming under fire for anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric that has escalated in recent weeks.

Piker, also known as HasanAbi, has hosted several well-known lawmakers including Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) on his platform. Critics also say his conduct reflects deeper problems with antisemitism at Amazon-owned Twitch, the dominant player in the streaming market.

In one recent stream, Piker declared that “it doesn’t matter if rapes f***ing happened on Oct. 7, like that doesn’t change the dynamic for me even this much,” holding his fingers up in a pinching gesture. He had previously denied those atrocities.

“So that’s the other part of this problem that many people can’t contend with,” he continued. “The Palestinian resistance is not perfect.”

Discussing efforts to compel Israeli Haredim to serve in the military, Piker described Haredim as “inbred.” He added that it would be “hilarious” if Haredim left Israel in response to the policy and also “very funny” if Haredi soldiers were deployed to Lebanon.

He has referred to Israelis, particularly West Bank settlers, as “inbred” on a host of other occasions as well, laughed at the stories of Jewish students who faced antisemitism on college campuses and parodied Israeli accents.

During a reaction to Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent CNN town hall, Piker and a co-host laughed at an attendee who thanked Harris for her concern for the hostages, and mocked her for asking about antisemitism on college campuses.

Piker, on his show with Ocasio-Cortez, blamed the Abraham Accords and other Trump administration policies for the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

He previously hosted a Yemeni influencer who filmed himself onboard a ship hijacked by the Houthis, compared the Houthis to the hero of an anime show and defended arguments that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack was inevitable and potentially understandable and justifiable.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) has recently spoken out against Piker in a series of social media posts.

“Nobody has been a greater amplifier of antisemitism than the poster child of Twitch, Hasan Piker,” Torres told Jewish Insider on Monday, calling on Twitch to cut ties with Piker. “Hasan Piker has dehumanized Orthodox Jews as ‘inbred’ and has dehumanized a Jewish man as ‘a bloodthirsty pig.’’’

Piker has responded to Torres’ social media criticism by describing Torres as “f***cking insane. He is a psychopath… He is vicious. Monster.” Piker’s management team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Torres and other critics of Twitch have argued that Piker is, in Torres’ words, “the symptom of a disease, and the disease is the leadership of Twitch,” and only the “tip of the antisemitic iceberg.”

“Hasan Piker is the antisemitic voice of a systemically antisemitic social media platform,” Torres continued. “If the KKK and the neo-Nazi movement were a social media platform, it would be Twitch. Twitch is a cesspool of antisemitism unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

Twitch did not respond to a request for comment.

Twitch has recently come under fire in recent weeks after revelations that it had banned Israeli users from creating new accounts in the wake of Oct. 7. The company claimed that the ban was put in place after Oct. 7, 2023, to prevent violent content, and was then mistakenly left in place. 

But users have claimed that the company’s explanation did not hold up to scrutiny, and have highlighted that it also hosts a slew of other antisemitic and pro-terrorist content, from popular creators affiliated with the far-right as well as the far-left. Twitch reinstated some of those streamers after banning or restricting them from the platform.

Twitch’s annual conference also featured a panel where streamers ranked other streamers on a scale from “Arab” to “loves Sabra.”.

Torres described Twitch’s CEO, Dan Clancy, as the greatest enabler of antisemitism online. The congressman said the company has a “fundamental problem” under its current leadership and that he’s “on a mission to hold Twitch accountable.” He called on Amazon to take action against both Clancy and Piker.

“The depth of antisemitism and anti-Americanism on Twitch is nothing short of staggering,” Torres said, adding that the platform merits more scrutiny from Congress.

He also said that Piker “belongs nowhere near the mainstream of American politics” and should not have been granted credentials to attend the Democratic National Convention.

After the conversation between Piker and Khanna, which took place at the DNC, Khanna told JI in a statement that he aims to engage with a range of media, including hosts with whom he disagrees.

“During the conversation, which was set up through the DNC, I spoke about the importance of a secure Israel as an American ally and Palestinian self-determination. Hasan and I may disagree about key aspects of the issue, but the goal of the conversation was to talk about a progressive agenda, which includes upholding human rights for all and a two state solution,” Khanna said. “I make an effort to talk to all media, including those I might not fully agree with such as Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters’ shows on Fox News that I’m also joining this week at the DNC.”

Markey, who also appeared on Piker’s show at the DNC, did not respond to a request for comment at the time. Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign did not provide comment about her appearance on Piker’s show in May.