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HBO and John Oliver’s Disgraceful Comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany in West Bank Analysis
John Oliver during the July 28, 2024, episode of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.” Photo: Screenshot
What do you get when you mix a late-night comedy news show with complex political topics like the West Bank, Israeli settlements, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
The answer is, the litany of context-free assertions, mischaracterizations, and outright falsehoods that define the 30-minute profile of the West Bank on this past week’s episode of Last Week Tonight.
Instead of approaching the topic with sensitivity and nuance, British-American comedian John Oliver presented the topic to his audience through a black-and-white lens that pits the aggressive and wicked Jewish State against the innocent Palestinian victims.
In particular, Oliver’s misleading and superficial analysis rested on a litany of oversimplifications and context-free assertions, an almost complete disregard for the role of Palestinian terrorism in the ongoing conflict, and the use of morally-charged terminology meant to unequivocally tarnish Israel’s reputation in the eyes of his audience.
The Missing Context: What Oliver Left Out
Throughout his story on the West Bank, Oliver presented his audience with a simplistic overview of the topic, robbing them of the much-needed context and nuance to truly understand the subject.
Some examples of John Oliver’s misrepresentation of the facts include:
The complete disregard for the Jewish history of the region, including the fact that prior to 1948, there were Jewish communities and Jewish-owned properties in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. While condemning the Jewish presence in certain areas, John Oliver never presents his audience with the complex history that complicates his simplistic narrative.
The claim that Israel incentivizes its citizens to live in the West Bank, even using a lottery to subsidize housing there. Contrary to the way that it is presented, this lottery is not a special tool for sole use in the West Bank, but also exists for subsidized housing in pre-1967 Israel.
The claim that there is a two-tier justice system in the West Bank, one for Israeli Jews and one for Palestinians. Since Israel has not annexed the West Bank, it would be illegal to apply Israeli civil law to Palestinians. As well, all Israeli citizens (including Arabs) are subject to Israeli civil law in the West Bank, not just Jews.
The claim that the Israeli military court system (which applies to West Bank Palestinians) has a 99% conviction rate. As noted in an analysis by CAMERA, this statistic is based on one year (2010) and is likely due to the fact that military prosecutors have a high threshold for which cases to bring and, thus, only bring forward cases they are highly confident will lead to a conviction.
Oliver presents Hebron as being home to 200,000 Palestinians and “700 hardline Israeli settlers who have chosen to live literally above them,” implying some sort of ethnic supremacy. This presentation of Hebron ignores the city’s importance to the Jewish people, disregards the fact that the majority of the city falls under Palestinian Authority control (where Jews are forbidden to live), and dismisses the fact that, topographically-speaking, not all Jews in Hebron live above the Palestinians.
The Missing Puzzle Piece: Palestinian Terrorism
While John Oliver chose to focus his West Bank profile on Israel’s perceived sins, one thing the comedian almost completely left out is the role that Palestinian terrorism has played in the region over the past century.
For example, Oliver decries both the separation barrier and West Bank checkpoints as “physical obstacles placed in the path of Palestinians’ everyday life.”
However, while presenting these as examples of Israeli cruelty, John Oliver fails to inform his audience that Israel was forced to install the separation barrier and checkpoints after years of Palestinian terrorist attacks (including suicide bombings) in pre-1967 Israel that originated in the West Bank.
And when Oliver does mention Palestinian terrorism, he is almost dismissive of its importance and effect on both the Israeli psyche and the tumultuousness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When discussing what he believes caused the Oslo Accords to break down, Oliver does mention “Palestinian militant attacks” but sandwiches it between settlement expansion and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, clearly placing the greater onus for the collapse of the peace talks on Israel while only paying lip service to the role of Palestinian terrorism.
Similarly, Oliver belittles the settler fear of Palestinian terrorism by comparing the number of Israelis killed in the West Bank over the past 16 years (150) and Palestinians killed (1,522). Clearly, for Oliver, Israel is a much greater threat than Palestinian violence.
However, to reach this conclusion, Oliver has to ignore the fact that these statistics don’t include the wave of Palestinian terrorism known as the Second Intifada (which ended in 2005), that Palestinian attacks are indiscriminate while the majority of Palestinians killed by Israel were either terrorists or engaged in violence, and that the number of Israeli deaths does not correlate with the daily threat of Palestinian terrorism.
For example, in June 2024, 57 terror attacks in the West Bank were foiled by Israeli security forces, while there were almost 400 instances of terrorism (the majority of which were in the West Bank), including shooting, rock throwing, pipe bombing, and firebombing.
Oliver’s “Moral” Case Against Israel
One of the most egregious aspects of this entire piece is Oliver’s use of morally-charged terminology to tarnish his large audience’s view of the Jewish State.
Early on in this segment, Oliver describes the founding of the State of Israel following the Holocaust and then quickly refers to the “Nakba” as the Palestinians’ “own collective trauma,” drawing a direct comparison between a genocide and the result of a war that was not initiated by Israel.
This diminishment of the gravity of the Holocaust is further made clear near the end of the piece when Oliver makes the grotesque implication that Israel is acting like the Nazis, saying:
A phrase that gets brought up a lot with regard to Israel is ‘never again,’ an anti-genocide slogan often invoked in memory of the Holocaust. And it’s always been open to two interpretations: There’s the one that means this must never again happen to the Jewish people and the one that means this must never happen again to any people anywhere. And in the West Bank, as in Gaza right now, it’s pretty clear which one the Israeli government has favored.
Only a complete perversion of morality could produce such a statement.
And yet, morality is what Oliver continually relies on to portray his view as the just one and those that disagree as immoral.
Oliver refers to the building of settlements as “immoral” and suggests the adoption of extreme steps against Israel by the United States as a moral step in the right direction, including conditioning military aid to the Jewish State and allowing anti-Israel resolutions to pass at the United Nations Security Council.
Oliver ends this piece by saying that the United States should “have the moral backbone that’s been shown by Ben & [expletive] Jerry’s,” a reference to the ice cream company’s decision to not allow its wares to be sold in the West Bank. (In an ironic twist, this decision was harmful for local Palestinians who worked for the Israeli ice cream company.)
I was very disappointed to see John Oliver use Holocaust inversion against the Jewish state. It’s one of the most harmful and hurtful forms of antisemitism.
It’s still so surreal that this is happening.
— Eli Klein (@TheEliKlein) July 30, 2024
The West Bank and Israeli settlements are complex and sensitive topics that deserve to be treated carefully and with nuance on the part of the presenter. While Israel is not above reproach, solely focusing on the perceived sins of the Jewish state is not conducive to fully understanding the reality in this contested part of the world.
Instead of acting responsibly, Oliver spent his half hour presentation on the subject spreading ignorance and misinformation, all in an effort to besmirch the Jewish state and inflame passions that are already at toxic levels.
Those who look to John Oliver and his alternative news show for information about current events deserve better.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post HBO and John Oliver’s Disgraceful Comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany in West Bank Analysis first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.