Verso Books promotes pro-Hamas author who praised ‘heroic’ 7/10 massacre

The largest independent book publisher in the world is promoting the work of an author and climate change campaigner who openly praised the Hamas 7 October terror attacks as “heroic” and “an act of liberation.”

Verso Books has published several books written by Andreas Malm who has frequently attempted to argue that the universal goals of the international climate movement go hand-in-hand with calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.

In the past Swedish activist Malm has made no secret of his admiration for  the leaders of Hamas and its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Islamic Jihad.

But following the atrocity of 7 October, Malm has gone to even further extremes in his support of the actions of the proscribed Palestinian terror organisation Hamas.

Video footage shared on X showed the associate professor of human ecology at Lund University, offering further praise for the slaughter that took place on 7 October.

In footage posted on X by Joseph Hirsch on April 3rd, Malm said: “The armed resistance happening in Gaza is heroic. I don’t know if you’ve seen those videos with a viral red triangle pointing to the targets before the explosions. I consume these videos as a drug. I inject them into my veins. I share them with my closest comrades.”

During the same talk he added: “Behind the 7th of October operation was the Palestinian resistance … I think that what happened on the 7th of October, with Tufan Al-Aqsa, was fundamentally an act of liberation.”

Malm then turned his focus to the slaughter of partygoers at the Nova music festival close to the Gaza border on the day of the massacre by Hamas operatives. He said: “It was deplorable, but not incomprehensible.

“If you live in a concentration camp and manage to fly out, you see people dancing, and you have a gun, you would probably express your anger with some unplanned violence.”

Attempting to justify the killing of innocent civilians living near to the border on Gaza, Malm said they were a civilian population living in “fortified colonies” whose civilian population is “a militarized one.”

He claimed of those living near to the border “their civilian character is a little bit blurred”.

Despite the ugly rhetoric from Malm, Verso Books have continued to promote the work of the author, posting themselves on X on April 8th: “Six months of bombing, of destruction, of genocide – a new horrific phase in a long history of colonisation and extraction.”Understanding the present crisis, Andreas Malm argues, requires a longue durée analysis of Palestine’s subjugation to fossil empire.”

A further Verso post on 10 April said: “To truly understand the past six months of genocide in Gaza, Andreas Malm argues, requires a longue durée analysis of Palestine’s subjugation to fossil empire.”

Responding to the recent remarks made by Malm, Luke Akehurst, director of the We Believe In Israel campaign group told Jewish News: “It is very disturbing that a purportedly progressive publishing house does not see any problem with their roster of authors including an overt apologist for the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas, and the atrocities it perpetrated on the 7th of October.”

The book publisher, which advertises itself as “the largest independent, radical publishing house in the world” was established in 1970 to put out writing on a wide variety of subjects, including philosophy , economics and history, feminism, international relations,  ecology and the environment.

Verso has published some of Malm’s most widely read books, including , How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2021), which praised Palestinian sabotage of pipelines and said leaders of the struggle against Israel were models for the climate movement to follow.

In a blog post on the Verso website, Malm said he spent “eight formative years immersed in the Palestinian cause, in the years leading up to the Second Intifada and then as an activist and organiser with the International Solidarity Movement” (ISM)

An article criticising Malm’s claim to be writing from a Marxist perspective that appeared on the Workers Liberty website also highlighted an essay he had written in 2017 entitled: The Walls of the Tank: On Palestinian Resistance for Salvage magazine.

In the article Malm expresses support for support for the leaders of Hamas and its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Islamic Jihad.

At one stage he claims: “Others than Arabs should feel respect for a figure like Mohammed Deif” as “the commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades…”

He also praises a press release put out in 2015 by the PFLP which warned against the signing of a rumoured peace deal with Israel.

Elsewhere, Malm also praises Hamas for the terror group’s “extraordinary efficiency in stamping out every attempt by Daesh to rear its head in Gaza”.

Malm also refers in the article to Israel as “the Zionist entity” and the “Zionist enterprise” and puts the entire blame for the conflict with the Palestinians  on “permanent Zionist aggression” and the “late-coming colonisers”.

Referencing the Islamic Jihad group, he describes them as “the second most important armed force of the resistance”.

The left-wing group Workers Liberty suggest Malm is “using Marxist phraseology to mask a thoroughgoing anti-democratic, anti-working class position.”

In America, Verso Books  titles are distributed in the United States by Penguin Random House, while in the UK this job is done by Marston Book Services.

Its board of directors includes the political activist Tariq Ali and the historian Perry Anderson.

After being to comment on their promotion of Malm, Verso posted another message on their social media page on X reading: “Thank you for helping announce our one day Andreas Maim flash sale.”

The company then offered a 40 percent discount on all six titles of his they publish.