Comedian and social media influencer Zack Sage Fox nearly didn’t come back alive after visiting the West Bank to find out whether Palestinians really support the Hamas terror group.
Fox went viral earlier this year for his “Gaza Graduation” video, which showed anti-Israel protesters in New York City struggling to correctly answer basic questions about the Israel-Hamas war, and has been working to educate his followers since the Oct. 7 terror attacks. He recently took his popular street interviews to the West Bank, a disputed territory where Palestinians want to establish an independent state alongside the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Fox, a “vocal and proud” Jewish-American, was producing content in Israel when a member of his production team offered him the opportunity to go into the West Bank with a Muslim producer and cameraman. Fox knew it could be a risky project, but he was intrigued because American journalists rarely have unfettered access to Palestinians.
“Israelis literally aren’t allowed into Palestine. They’re not allowed into the West Bank. But I’m not Israeli, I’m an American Jew, my passport doesn’t say ‘Jewish’. So they said, ‘As long as you don’t say you’re Jewish, you’re not going to be killed on the spot,'” Fox told Fox News Digital.
“That night I looked in the mirror and thought, ‘Maybe I could pass for Italian,'” Fox continued. “I’m willing to take a risk.”
To prepare for this daring journey, Fox shed his trademark finery — jewelry and nail polish — and donned his most “manly” clothes. He explained that he hadn’t told most of his friends and family back in the U.S. about his plans, fearing they would be persuaded out of the way.
During the trip, Fox told anyone who asked that he was Italian-American and was able to cross the West Bank border without issue, which he found “pretty shocking.”
Fox began his time in the West Bank with a scheduled interview with a man described by a Muslim producer as a “very intelligent, polite, somewhat moderate” thinker with a master’s degree and good English. The two sat down in a coffee shop in Ramallah, the Palestinian “capital” near Jerusalem.
The man denied that “innocent Israelis” were killed in the October 7 attack, expressed support for Hamas and suggested no rapes occurred during the barbaric attack.
“I quickly realized that if this was being presented to me as one of the more cultured people, I might be really shocked,” Fox said.
Fox then took to the streets to seek out locals, recording a series of impromptu interviews as he walked through Ramallah. But once on the streets, “the situation quickly became very contentious,” Fox said.
“There just seemed to be an outpouring of great love and support for Hamas,” Fox said.
“I was looking specifically for young people, because I thought there would be people here who don’t support Hamas, but they all are,” he continued. “It really ranged from sympathy to actual love and respect for Hamas. I thought I’d find at least some people who weren’t staunch Hamas supporters, but I didn’t find any.”
Fox said he encountered several people on the streets of the West Bank who were quick to express support for the terrorist group Hamas and say the Israeli hostages should not be released. He said the situation became particularly dicey when he tried to interview a woman whose hair was completely covered.
“A Palestinian man appeared and started screaming in Arabic. Our translator and producer said he was very upset,” Fox said.
Fox recalled the man yelling something about “modesty” and that women should not speak for all Palestinians. Fox tried to ignore him, but he became more agitated and began calling other Palestinian men for support.
“They started yelling in Arabic but I was still trying to remain professional and carry on with the interview. Eventually my producer said they were threatening to harm us if we didn’t delete the footage. I’ve never done anything like this in my career… I’ve never threatened violence against anyone,” Fox said.
“The violence then very quickly turned to death threats,” Fox added, noting that he initially fought back and refused to remove the footage. “The Arabic language was getting louder and the guys were getting closer and closer.”
Fox said he was probably “crazy” and wanted to stand his ground, but changed his tune after the Muslim cameraman said he feared for his life.
“I eventually gave in because the cameraman said they were threatening to kill us… We deleted a lot of the footage in front of him,” he said.
“Then the producer and the cameraman grabbed me by the arm and ran to the car. It was a pretty traumatic experience,” he continued. “We really did run away from Palestine… Luckily they didn’t follow us to the car.”
Fox hired a team of IT experts to restore some of the footage, and all the restored interviews were compiled into a hot topic video called “Wild West Banks.” Despite losing valuable footage, he said he was “glad we got out of there alive,” and was thrilled to be able to recover enough footage to make an impact.
“Wild West Bank” has been viewed more than 4.7 million times on X alone.
Fox noted that while many Jews do not refer to the West Bank as “Palestine,” she chose to use the term in her video and in subsequent conversations for the purposes of “kumbaya.”
“Obviously there is land where Palestinians live and, at least for me, the dream is a two-state solution. But then when I get there I realize that dream is further away than it ever was,” Fox said.
Last month, the State Department urged Americans to avoid the West Bank, citing “terrorism and civil unrest.”
