Variety magazine cover of 'pro-Israel' Amy Schumer decried

Variety Magazine's cover feature and interview with pro-Israel American comedian and actress Amy Schumer have been decried as tone-deaf for platforming her support for Israel's war in Gaza as pro-Palestine protests spread coast to coast across much of the United States.

Variety on Tuesday published a cover spread and interview with the controversial celebrity, in which her uncritical support for Israel's actions, which according to the top world court may amount to a plausible genocide, was described by friend Jennifer Lawrence as "speaking for justice" and by her "speaking up for Jews" without being challenged.

The article, part of a 'Power of Women' feature, recounted how Schumer remains unfazed by attempts to call her out. When she was interrupted by a stranger shouting at her during filming in New York, she told Variety, “F*** you, Amy Schumer! You’re a Zionist! You love genocide!”, Schumer didn’t break character, refusing to stop working.

“It didn’t even raise my heart rate...I didn’t cry. Nothing.”

Schumer in the interview claimed she didn't agree with the Netanyahu government and described the mass atrocities in Gaza as "sickening, horrifying and unthinkable" although she has consistently mocked calls for a ceasefire in Gaza on her social media accounts.

But conflating the issues, she portrayed her views as fighting anti-Semitism, a common tactic among supporters of Israel. "I don’t think it’s OK to hate anyone because they were born Jewish," she told Variety without contextualizing.

“The focus is so razor-sharp on Jewish people but not on Hamas,” she claimed. “It’s very strange. So I’d recommend people read a book — ‘Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth’ by Noa Tishby. Or anything — Jewish people wrote everything down.”

"Amy Schumer thinks that in the United States - where Congress overwhelmingly passed a $14-billion aid package for Israel and Washington vetoed three ceasefire resolutions at the UNSC - there is too much criticism of Israel and too little criticism of Hamas," Ali Harb, a Washington-based journalist, wrote on Twitter.

"Feels absolutely insane to see Amy Schumer’s horrendously racist social media presence being equated to “speaking for justice” while college students are actively being arrested and villainized for simply asking for an end to genocide," wrote Curtis Kimberlin on X, formerly Twitter.

When in November Schumer posted a video of Martin Luther King Jr. stating that Israel “has the right to exist”, his daughter, Bernice King corrected Schumer, posting on X: “Amy: Certainly, my father was against anti-Semitism, as am I [but] he also believed militarism (along with racism and poverty) to be among the interconnected Triple Evils...I am certain he would call for Israel’s bombing of Palestinians to cease, for hostages to be released … and for us to work for true peace, which includes justice.”