This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

In an unlikely manifestation of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the comedian Russell Brand and the Fox News anchor Sean Hannity have had a very public and personal disagreement over the Gaza crisis.

The row started when Brand focused an episode of his satirical YouTube series, The Trews, on an episode of Hannity’s show where he questioned Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the Jerusalem Fund. As part of the interview, Hannity asked Munayyer, “what part of this can’t you get through your thick head?”, before stopping the interview short when Munayyer refused to answer “yes” to the question “Is Hamas a terrorist organisation?”

“One of the definitions of a terrorist is using intimidation to reach your goals,” says Brand in his video. “Who in that situation was behaving like a terrorist? Using intimidation, bullying, being unreasonable? Sean Hannity, that is where the terrorism is coming from.”



Brand goes on to make the following analogy about the conflict: “If I’m beating up somebody with a variety of weaponry and they’re jabbing me with a pin ... of course, it’s still out of order, the pin. It hurts and everything, but don’t remove all context except for the information that’s convenient to you.”

Russell Brand’s video was an instant hit and has now attracted nearly 1.5m views. Its success prompted this provocative tweet from Brand:

Not one to stay quiet in the face of provocation, Hannity replied:

And Brand responded:

On Thursday, Hannity devoted a five-minute segment of his show to the comedian. “Yesterday, Russell Brand, a D-list actor, better known for his failed marriage to Katy Perry, recorded himself going on a 12 and a half minute tirade against little old me.

“Russell, if you’re watching, take a close look at your TV because you’re kind of dumb and ignorant,” says Hannity. And, using his favourite insult: “Apparently Russell can’t get it through his thick head and possibly fathom that this is a reality.”

In an attempt to get the last word in, Brand retweeted the following:



In his latest installment of The Trews, Brand lays into Fox’s multimillionaire presenter Bill O’Reilly for doling out advice to struggling Americans.



Brand v Fox News – the battle continues …

