Hen Mazzig Confronts Norman Finkelstein After Being Called a 'Child Killer

Israeli activist and writer Hen Mazzig clashed with anti-Israel academic Norman Finkelstein on Piers Morgan Uncensored this week. Finkelstein branded Israel a "nation of child killers," compared Mazzig to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels and said it was likely that Mazzig himself was a child killer.

Mazzig served in the IDF as a humanitarian affairs officer, working with Palestinians and international organizations. He joined a panel with Finkelstein, journalist Glenn Greenwald and commentator Winston Marshall, which was broadcast on September 22. The episode opened with a one-on-one interview with Finkelstein, in which Morgan pressed him on his description of Israel as a "nation of child killers." The panel then turned to the controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran before the exchange between Finkelstein and Mazzig erupted.

Mazzig pushed back hard. He confronted Finkelstein over the atrocities of October 7, including the murder of the Bibas children in Hamas captivity and the sexual violence committed by Hamas terrorists, and accused him of denial.

Mazzig later shared a clip of the exchange on social media. "Someone had to tell Norman Finkelstein what a despicable man he is," he wrote. "I just wish I didn't have to sit so close to him."

In a longer post, Mazzig said he had built his career on keeping his cool even against provocateurs, but that this time he couldn't. He noted that Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors, while his own grandmother survived the Farhud, the 1941 pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad. Mazzig said he was angry that Finkelstein still gets a platform. He added that he was angry that people who hate Jews would use one Jewish man's words against every Jew alive. "I was angry on behalf of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, whose memory he disgraced," he wrote.

He expanded on the experience in a Substack essay titled "I Lost It on Piers Morgan and I'm Not Sorry." In it, he reflected on the format of shows like Morgan's and on why he broke from his usual composure.

Supporters praised Mazzig for confronting Finkelstein directly.

The episode also featured an interview with Arab Barghouti, son of Marwan Barghouti. The elder Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his role in terror attacks that murdered Israelis. The program referred to him as "the Palestinian Nelson Mandela."