After months of timidity and fear, Gaza has filled Italian squares like it hadn’t in a long time. In every city, in schools, in nursing homes: students occupying, workers protesting, citizens asking—with a clear voice—for justice for the Palestinian people, and blocking everything in response to the Israeli navy’s attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla. It is a broad, multifaceted, intergenerational mobilization, for a cause we have supported for years.
And in the midst of all this, someone might ask: what do video games have to do with it?
The answer, now more than ever, is: a lot.
Because video games, like every cultural language, tell stories about the world. And for some time now—even if few have noticed—some creators have used the medium of video games to tell the story of Palestine. To give voice to those who are often invisible on the news. To make us feel what it means to live under occupation, under siege, among drones and blackouts, between impossible choices.
There is no room for a counter-argument in the face of genocide
It is time, in the midst of this wave of awareness and participation, to take a small survey of what the world of video games has already said (and done) about Gaza, about Palestine, about the injustice it suffers.
Attention, disclaimer: don’t expect neutral or politically correct games, and no “balanced view”: as someone pointed out recently, there is no valid counter-argument in the face of genocide. There is no ignorance that holds sway, in the age of the internet, about a story that has been going on for more than 50 years.
There have been many crises in Gaza over many decades; one was witnessed by Vittorio Arrigoni — I always want to remember the heroic figure of this guy almost my age, grown up close to where I did; but already before, Italy paid much attention to Palestine, and right now clips of speeches by former Prime Ministers or leaders of the opposition from the 1980s are circulating on social media, where they recognized the validity of the Palestinian cause, while distancing themselves from its more extreme forms of armed struggle.
Some months ago someone even retrieved a 2006 statement by the long time leader of the conservative side of the Christian Democrats party, Andreotti, in his final years as a lifetime senator: “I believe that each of us, if we had been born in a concentration camp, and for fifty years were kept there and had no prospect of giving our children a future, would become a terrorist.”
For this reason let’s be clear: the games we list have a perspective, a “partisan” point of view. On the side of the Palestinian population, even when this may be unsettling, may force you to play from a point of view that wouldn’t be your own. This experience, probably, is one that many in that land find themselves living—and with video games we can bring this closer to us too.
Some games that deal with Palestine
Global Conflicts: Palestine (2007)
A game for Mac and Windows played from the viewpoint of a freelance journalist in Jerusalem, talking with civilians, soldiers, activists, trying to understand and tell the story. An old game (and now somewhat visually dated), but interesting for the approach: it puts you in the middle, forces you to listen.
Recommended for: those who want to understand the weight of narrative in conflicts.
Peacemaker (2007)
A simulation game for mobile and desktop, where you can govern Israel or Palestine, trying to reach a fragile peace. Interesting from a strategic point of view, but open to criticism for putting on the “same level” two realities that are deeply asymmetrical.
Recommended for: those who want to reflect on complexity, but also on simplifications.
Liyla and the Shadows of War (2016)
A small mobile game for iOS and Android, developed by a Palestinian author, which tells the experience of a family during the bombings of Gaza. It’s not an FPS, it’s not a management game: it’s a short run toward safety, among the ruins. You don’t shoot. You flee, you fear, you lose. And you listen to the silence. Banned from Apple’s App Store, subject of an international solidarity campaign, it is an example of a video game contributing to a cause in an original and innovative way.
Recommended for: those who want to feel the anguish of siege, not just read about it.
Fursan al-Aqsa (2022)
And here we have a controversial title: a first-person shooter where you play as a Palestinian fighter against Israeli soldiers. It has raised strong criticism (for violence and polarization), but it is also one of the few attempts to overturn the dominant narrative. The site strongly contests the accusations of promoting violence and terrorism, and compares the violence it depicts with that shown in games like Call of Duty.
Recommended for: those who want to confront the urgency and limit of anger.
Toofan Al-Aqsa (2024)
Here we are dealing directly with provocation: this game is titled after Hamas’s October 7 operation, which resulted in many hundreds of deaths and the capture of dozens of hostages. A very direct, partisan shooter, without many filters.
Recommended for: those who want to see how even the video game language can become a battlefield.
Video games as a political space: Marijam Did’s book
All this discussion fits perfectly within the work of journalist and game designer Marijam Did, who in her book Everything to Play For. How Videogames are Changing the World explains how games can form consciousness, transmit values, shape critical thinking.
Video games, she writes, are no longer just “escapism.” They are complex languages, where worlds can be built (and deconstructed). Where one can take a stance, tell reality, take the player by the hand and bring them to places that otherwise would remain distant.
It’s no coincidence that today some indie studios choose to tell the story of Palestine. And it’s no coincidence that many platforms (such as Steam, or mobile stores) sometimes censor these contents.
Because telling Palestine—truly—is a political act. Already Liyla and the Shadows of War at its release—as we already noted—was rejected by Apple’s App Store Games section, where it was later added thanks to community protests. Meanwhile, on the independent games platform Itch, the ”charity bundle” sale dedicated to another (previous) emergency phase in Gaza achieved great success and impact.
Playing is also an ethical act
Today, in these strong and clear days of mobilization that we are facing in Italy, it is worth asking: what kind of players do we want to be? What games do we want to play, propose, use also in contexts of gathering and education? Do we want to turn off the console and forget? Or do we want to use games also to understand, to feel, to listen to voices that cannot be heard elsewhere?
It is not an easy choice. But it is necessary.
And the reverse is true too: those who march in the streets today, who sign petitions, who occupy schools and universities – they can find in video games another tool of storytelling and resistance. Because one can “play for Palestine,” just as one can read, write, sing or draw for Palestine.
Conclusion
Play. But play with conscience.
Discover these titles. Share them. Talk about them. Use them to discuss, reflect, explain.
And then take to the streets.
Because Palestine does not only need clicks or likes. It needs voices. Bodies. Presence. The worlds we build in video games are worth nothing if we don’t know how to defend the real one too.
