Political filmmaker Ami Horowitz tweeted Thursday that YouTube had banned his video displaying several examples of anti-Semitism at a University of North Carolina and Duke University Conference.
Horowitz posted the video Wednesday, but said 20 minutes later that he found YouTube had censored it. Shares, comments and view numbers were all disabled, Horowitz told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The video, which was also posted by The Daily Wire on Wednesday, shows Horowitz attending a conference, “Conflict over Gaza: People, Politics, and Possibilities,” hosted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. The conference took place from March 22 to March 24 and was hosted by UNC’s Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies.
A YouTube spokesperson told TheDCNF the platform did not remove Horowitz’s video, but that the video “erroneously had some features removed” and that after an appeal, the video was “re-reviewed and all features were reinstated.”
“With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention, we act quickly to correct it. We also offer uploaders the ability to appeal actions taken on their videos and we will re-review the content,” YouTube said in a statement.
Horowitz provided TheDCNF with a screenshot of YouTube’s initial reasons why they had restricted his video. In the email, YouTube indicated that his video was restricted because it contained hate speech.
The video itself shows Horowitz interviewing students at the conference in efforts to show that the conference displayed anti-Semitism.
“This was a major conference with hundreds of students, professors, and administrators, who spent the weekend bashing Israel and whitewashing the terrorist organization, Hamas,” Horowitz says in the video. “If it only stopped there.”
Horowitz interviews various students and faculty throughout the video, asking them if Jewish money controlled American government policy. Multiple persons are heard in the video saying that Jewish money does control American policy.
Horowitz also questions people over anti-Semitism taking place in New York, to which one woman replied in the video, “Blacks have a lot of also reason to be angry at Jews right now.”
The video also includes footage of a singer on stage telling the assembled crowd, “This is my anti-Semitic song,” to which the crowd responds with laughs.
“Think of Mel Gibson,” he tells them, and then encourages him to join him in song.
“Let’s try it together, because I need your help. I cannot be anti-Semitic alone,” the singer says, before singing, “Oh! I’m in love with a Jew.” The crowd joins in to sing repeatedly, “I’m in love with a Jew.”
“You look beautifully anti-Semitic,” the singer tells the crowd.
Duke and UNC did not immediately respond to TheDCNF’s request for comment.
