(Daily Mail) Prince Harry was today urged to reconsider holding an online event to promote his memoir, Spare, with a ‘toxic trauma’ doctor who has compared Hamas to the Jewish heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis and once branded Israel’s government terrorists.
Gabor Maté, 79 – who has also defended Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians – will join the Duke of Sussex on Saturday for an ‘intimate’ £17-a-head virtual conference to discuss ‘living with loss and the importance of personal healing’, followed by a live Q&A.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in New York, told the Jewish Chronicle: ‘Whoever made the arrangements to have this individual appear with Prince Harry, did him no favours. If Prince Harry knew this man’s record and still chose him for the interview, our center would criticise the prince for such an inappropriate choice.’
The livestream costs £17 and comes with a free hardback copy of the duke’s memoir
Gabor Maté, 79, will join Harry (pictured with US chat-show host Stephen Colbert while promoting Spare) tomorrow to discuss ‘living with loss and the importance of personal healing’, followed by a live Q and A
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in New York, told the Jewish Chronicle: ‘Whoever made the arrangements to have this individual appear with Prince Harry, did him no favours’
Dr Maté, a Hungarian-Canadian physician, has his own harrowing story. Born in Nazi-occupied Budapest in 1944, when he was five months old his maternal grandparents were among the Jews murdered in Auschwitz. He was taken from his mother and hidden with an aunt until the war ended.
He has also recently defended Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn from claims of anti-Semitism.
He has also appeared on a left-wing YouTube channel: The Grayzone, which has been branded pro-Kremlin.
MailOnline has contacted a representative of Prince Harry for comment and asked if the event is still going ahead and whether Harry was aware of the controversies surrounding Gabor Maté before the event was organised.
It is not yet clear who put Harry and Dr Maté together, and if they have spent time together in the past.
It could be the publishers of Spare or one of the Sussexes’ team who put them in touch.
Archewell’s executive director is Briton, James Holt one of Prince Harry’s longest-serving team members, having led communications for the Royal Foundation from October 2017, when it was run by Harry along with Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Mr Holt, who has previously worked for the Liberal Democrats, also acted as Harry and Meghan Markle’s UK spokesman and took on the role of executive director of the Archewell Foundation in March 2020. He is now based in LA.
There is also Mandana Dayani, who Harry and Meghan hired as a tech and media executive in June 2021.
There is also Ashley Momtaheni, one of the Sussexes’ most recent hires. She joined last May as executive vice president for global communications.
In 2021 Gabor Maté said in an online event that Hamas was ‘nothing compared to the terrorism of the Israeli government’, accusing Israel of wanting to seize all of ‘biblical Palestine’ beyond the Jordan.
He also appeared on a podcast with left-wing comic Russell Brand, saying of Israel: ‘It’s the longest ethnic-cleansing operation in the 20th and 21st centuries. It’s still going on.’
He then described Gaza as ‘the world’s largest outdoor prison’.
In another controversy, writing in the Toronto Star, he compared Hamas terrorists to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – the 1943 Jewish rebellion in German-occupied Poland
Dr Mate said in in 2014: ‘The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto.’
Defending the firing of rockets from Palestine into Israel, he said: ‘Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm’.
He has spoken in friendly terms of Pink Floyd star Roger Waters, recently described as ‘antisemitic to [his] rotten core’.
Gabor Maté also taken in part in discussions hosted by a far-left, pro-Kremlin blog and defended Jeremy Corbyn against charges of antisemitism, according to The JC.
Trauma expert Gabor Maté with his wife, Rae, who he married in 1969
Dr Maté is a Hungarian-Canadian best-selling author and physician who specialises in addiction and childhood development
King Charles (left) issued notice to the Sussexes (seen right, at Frogmore) that they would need to vacate the five-bedroom mansion on Tuesday
Harry will speak publicly tomorrow as the rift with his family appeared to deepen this week.
His father appears to have retaliated to Spare by evicting the Sussexes from their grace-and-favour UK home.
The couple no longer have a base in Britain – in an act their allies say they consider to be ‘cruel’.
And a wrangle over money could also follow.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry could be owed a ‘refund’ after they were kicked out of Frogmore Cottage having spent £2.4million on refurbishments and apparently paying for rent up front.
King Charles issued notice to the Sussexes that they would need to vacate the five-bedroom mansion on Tuesdayin a dramatic move reportedly prompted by the repeated broadsides at Queen Consort Camilla in the Duke’s memoir, Spare.
The decision was backed both by his wife and the Prince and Princess of Wales, it is understood.
However, it has now prompted questions as to whether the Crown Estate, which leases out Frogmore to the Sussexes, might actually end up owing the couple money.
The Sussexes were given use of Frogmore Cottage in 2018 by Queen Elizabeth amid their explosive fall-out with William and Katherine.
It was originally five, run-down, staff residences but was knocked back into one large home with a private garden initially using £2.4million in taxpayers’ money.
The couple themselves paid for anything over and above basic fixtures and fittings.
At the time, the couple were said to be ‘relieved and pleased’ to refund taxpayers for the renovations.
‘They are ‘very relieved and very pleased’ to have been able to pay off the debt so quickly,’ a source close to them told Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl.
‘This has been a pro-active step and something they wanted to do from the outset.
‘There was no requirement [from the Queen] for them to pay the money back but it was important to them that they did, and after the Netflix deal they were in a position to do so. I think this is quite a significant moment for them.’
