Valve removes pro-Palestinian shooting game from Steam following complaint by UK Counter-Terrorism Police, developer says 'we clearly see the double standards'

Valve has removed an online game from Steam UK after a request by the UK's Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit. This body is responsible for monitoring extreme content on the Internet (thanks 404). The game is Fursan al-Aqsa, The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It was released in 2022 and casts the user as a Hamas member attacking Israeli targets.

The game has been around for a long time and would have offended some people anyway. However, this latest development was prompted by a new "Operation al-Aqsa Flood Update" that was released at the beginning of October. This update recreates some aspects of the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel in October 2023. The trailer for the update features text such as, "I want an explosion belt to blow myself up over the Zionists!" along with game footage of Hamas soldiers shooting Israeli Defense Force troops and the execution of an Israeli captive.

Nidal Nijm is the game's developer. He claims that players are not allowed to perform the second act in the game and are penalised for it.

Valve contacted Nijam to inform him that the game was no longer available for sale on October 22. The email reads: "We received a request for blocking the game from UK authorities and have applied country restrictions."

When asked for the reason behind the ban, Valve responded: "We were contacted from the Counter Terrorism Command of United Kingdom, specifically by the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit. We have to comply with the requests of any authority that oversees a region and governs content. The game is still available in other regions.

The UK's CTIRU is in operation since 2010, and aims to police extremist material on the internet. The unit claims to have removed hundreds and thousands of pieces extremist material. CTIRU spokesperson: "We don't comment on specific content, or any communication with specific platforms or providers."

Fursan al Aqsa was also blocked in Germany and Australia. According to its developer, this is because he cannot afford to apply for a rating. Nijm told 404 that "the region lock of my UK game was clearly due political reasons (they accuse my game of being terrorist propaganda)."

Nijm said: "I don't blame Valve or Steam. The blame is on the UK Government and Authorities who are irritated by a videogame." "According to their flawed logic, Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and the latest version should also be banned. You play as an American soldier and go to Iraq killing Iraqi people. "We can see the double standard clearly."

Fursan al-Aqsa does not compete with Call of Duty. It's a low budget shooter with generic assets and a few Israeli flags scattered around. The idea behind it is, of course more incendiary that the shovelware reality. Nijm doesn't help the game by admitting that certain aspects, such as the execution of a soldier in the trailer, were made "just for 'triggering' Zionists and pissing them off", then comparing it with the infamous No Russian Mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 where the player takes part a terrorist attack on a Russian airport including shooting civilians.

There is a valid point that the vast majority are western-dominated shooters, and players have enjoyed virtual recreations of wars in real life, especially Middle Eastern conflicts, for decades. I don't believe it's an exaggeration to say that there are game versions of most major US Army conflicts. You'll be playing as the brave Americans who take on vaguely-defined Arabic cannonfodder.

Fursan al Aqsa seems to be crossing the line of bad taste in actively celebrating a terrorist attack that was unquestionably horrific, and the victims were mostly civilians. Hamas still holds hostages from the incident and, of course, the war between Israel & Palestine continues. It's easy to see why the UK authorities were not happy with the idea of recreating this incident and presenting it as an act of heroism.