Hasan Piker Showed Us Who He Is. The University of Texas Should Pay Attention.

In high school in Dallas, I didn’t just read about antisemitism. I fought it. I gave presentations, mobilized my community, and spoke up, even when it cost me friends, lots of them. So when it came time to pick a college, I had one big requirement: a school that wouldn’t tolerate hate against Jews.

I chose the University of Texas at Austin, and I don’t regret it for a second.

In summer 2024, I volunteered with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)  through Sar-El at Re’im, on the Gaza border, just steps from where the Nova festival massacre happened months earlier. In summer 2025, I went back and served on a base near the Lebanon and Syria borders. When the Twelve-Day War with Iran broke out, I spent my days in a Jerusalem warehouse packing gear for soldiers heading to the front. I heard the sirens. I read to my little cousins in their safe room while explosions sounded in the background. I came home to Texas prouder than ever to be an American, a Jew, and a Longhorn.

So when I found out University Democrats invited Hasan Piker to speak at UT’s William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center (WCP) Auditorium on September 30, I didn’t get quiet. I am the UT Austin StandWithUs Emerson Fellow. The Fellowship is a year-long program that selects and trains student leaders from hundreds of universities. My job is to educate students about Israel, fight antisemitism on campus with facts, and stand up for my community. So I got to work. 

For a lot of students, Piker is a role model. His own words tell a very different story, however. 

He has said, “Hamas is a thousand times better than a fascist settler colonial apartheid state,”. When asked directly on a major podcast this year whether he meant it, he answered, “I do mean it.” He added that he would “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time.”¹ This is the same Hamas that on October 7 murdered and kidnapped civilians, including a baby just nine months old.

About Hezbollah, another U.S.-designated terrorist organization, he said that as a “resistance group, they’re pretty successful against Israel,” and added, “I don’t have an issue with them.”² Asked his favorite flag, he answered, “Hezbollah. Look it up. I’m not even kidding.”³

And he has called ultra-Orthodox Jews “inbred.”⁴

That’s not criticism of a government. That’s a pattern of hatred. That’s a pattern of  racist hatred that supports genocidal terrorist ideology, like that of Hezbollah.

And his contempt doesn’t stop at Jews or Israel. It goes straight to America.

He said, “America deserved 9/11.”⁵ He later called it bad satire. Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered that day. Firefighters ran up the stairs of burning towers. Families are still grieving. There’s nothing funny about it.

He’s even said, “I wipe my ass with the Constitution,” and “Motherf*** the Constitution and motherf*** this country.”⁶ That’s the same Constitution that protects his right to say all of this, and to speak on a college campus. 

I’m a proud American. My great-great-aunt survived Auschwitz and came here after the camps were liberated. This country gave my family freedom, safety, and the chance to live openly as Jews. When Piker espouses hate against Israel, praises terrorists, and trashes America, he isn’t making a bold political point. He’s showing us who he is. 

His hate hits other groups too. When a Black viewer challenged him, he asked whether any other “Black folk” wanted to challenge him and told them to “suck my f’ing c.”⁷ When a transgender viewer criticized him, he said, “you are f***ing cancer.”⁸ While discussing wealthy men committing sexual assault, he suggested they should “do date rape” to wealthy women instead.⁹

This is who is being handed a stage at a public university in Texas.

I believe in free speech. Students should be able to debate any idea, no matter how controversial, including their opinions about Israel., I actually enjoy the difficult conversations. But free speech doesn’t absolve anyone from following the rules.So I did my homework. 

UT’s own rules say student organizations can’t invite off-campus people to attend their guest-speaker events.¹⁰ Yet University Democrats sold “General Admission (non student)” tickets to the public for $23.18, plus a $55.20 “Sponsorship” tier that came with recognition on social media.¹¹ WCP Auditorium holds 460 seats. The event has over 2,000 people on its waitlist, and registration has been opened to far more people than the room can hold.¹²

UT has seen what happens when the public takes over campus. In April 2024, people tried to set up encampments on the South Lawn. Of the 79 people arrested on April 29, 45 had no connection to UT Austin.¹³ The university reported confiscating guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, mallets, and chains from protesters.¹⁴

That’s exactly why Texas passed Senate Bill 2972, known as the “Campus Protection Act” in 2025. It restricts expressive activities and protests at public institutions of higher education. Lawmakers wrote it in response to those protests, and it gives public universities clear authority to treat the public differently from their own students and employees.¹⁵ Selling tickets to the general public for a sold-out, overbooked event goes against the whole point of that law.

Put all of this together: a speaker famous for slandering my community (and others), praising terrorists, and expressing hatred for America, thousands of people on the waitlist, tickets sold to the general public, and a room that only holds 460. UT has seen what happens when crowds of outsiders pour onto campus for a cause like this. That’s a recipe for disruption, not debate.

This isn’t just something abstract for me. On September 30, I have an exam at the same time as this event nearby, along with many other students. That doesn’t exactly make for a distraction-free exam environment.  We have every right to walk to class safely, and UT has a duty to make sure we can.

And I’m not doing this alone. Many different student and Greek life organizations have come together and are taking this straight to university leadership. UT is listening, because this is a school that takes these things seriously. That’s exactly why I came here.

So here’s my ask: UT, enforce your own rules. Limit this event to current students, faculty, and staff. Refund every ticket sold to the public. Cap attendance at the 460 seats the room holds. Make sure every student on campus that night can get to class and take their exams safely. And if Piker gets on that stage and incites violence, remove him. That’s not censorship. It’s the same standard every other student organization and speaker has to meet. 

I love this school. I love this state. I love this country. That’s why I’m holding all of them to the standard I know they can meet, because Texas doesn’t put up with this.

I won’t be silent. I won’t hide who I am. I’m a proud American Jew, and I’m a proud Longhorn.

References:

¹ Pod Save America, “Hasan Piker Has Thoughts on the Hasan Piker Discourse,” April 12, 2026, transcript: https://podscripts.co/podcasts/pod-save-america/hasan-piker-has-thoughts-on-the-hasan-piker-discourse
² Alex Griffing, “Left Wing Pundit Hasan Piker Says ‘I Don’t Have An Issue’ With Hezbollah,” Mediaite, September 30, 2024, https://www.mediaite.com/politics/left-wing-pundit-hasan-piker-says-i-dont-have-an-issue-with-hezbollah-praises-yemens-houthis-for-seizing-ships/
³ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E449cvW0h_0
⁴ Pod Save America, April 12, 2026 (see note 1); [original clip].
⁵ [Original 2019 clip]; see also Pod Save America, April 12, 2026 (see note 1).
⁶ @TONYxTWO on X, https://x.com/TONYxTWO/status/2087362635230515623
⁷ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U4WpD2WIJg&rco=1
⁸ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCFu_mletS8
⁹ https://drive.google.com/file/d/16-ymq6EgEg5H8DkeE26yDCTuiaxwyx3B/view?pli=1
¹⁰ UT Austin Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities, Ch. 13, Sec. 13-1005, https://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/appendices/appendix-c/speech-expression-and-assembly/
¹¹ University Democrats, event registration page, [URL], accessed [date].
¹² [Source for waitlist and registration numbers]; UT Austin Institutional Rules, Ch. 13, Sec. 13-1004.
¹³ “UT Statement Regarding Arrests from Monday’s Protest and Confiscation of Weapons,” UT Austin News, April 30, 2024, https://news.utexas.edu/2024/04/30/ut-statement-regarding-monday-arrests-and-confiscation-of-weapons/
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ S.B. 2972, 89th Leg., R.S. (Tex. 2025), amending Tex. Educ. Code § 51.9315(k), https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/billtext/html/SB02972F.htm