Accused of anti-Semitism, comedian Bassem Youssef slams 'empty accusation' • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] hello and welcome to tetatet prin 24's Flagship interview show our guest today is Basim yusf he was a heart surgeon turned comedian uh who became famous a decade ago during the Arab Spring in his native Egypt uh as such he became a thorn in the sight of the authority he decided to leave he is now a US citizen and he's currently having his second coming if I may use the Expression as a standup comman in English his middle Beast tour is now in full swing across the U us the Middle East and Europe he joins us from Dubai basam YF thank you very much thank you so much for having me your show your current show doesn't touch upon the war in Gaza however you've struck a deep Court in the Muslim World by speaking out vividly about it uh you said uh that this was out of anger frustration as the way the conflict was being depicted in the west especially in the western media do you still feel angry as we reach nearly six month of war in Gaza yes because it seems that no matter how much of a kind of atrocities and how much of aggression and how much of unfair this war has become and how entitled and uh and uh and uh and aggressive Israel does it seems that people kind of like choose to turn away and turn a blind eye uh for uh actions that could only be be uh described as as crimes of war or war crimes but it seems that the it just like it's very frustrating to see that the freedom of expression and the fairness and the justice that the West promised the world is very selective when it comes to Israel uh but clearly I mean don't you think that the solidarity that Israel received after the October 7 uh Massacre is Vanishing in Europe even in the US you see Rising tensions between the Biden Administration is is you even heard Donald Trump in a recent interview said Israel needs to make peace because it is losing a lot of the world don't you think that things are changing yeah it's sad it took 32,000 people to be killed to get get to that it seems just like Israel was was was again with its entitlement it just it's I wonder it's like why it took that long and and and and and and what was the the the threshold that people would say anything but even like the Biden Administration what did they do they a couple of days ago they were they they abstained from a nonbing security Council resolution which really doesn't mean anything and um uh there is a bigger issue here it's not about the Gaza or this is what they want you to believe it's about it's about Gaza about Palestina about October 7th there's a much bigger problem at hand here is that the kind of way uh hold that Israel holds on on Western politics uh I don't know and I said that before in an interview I don't understand why my US representatives are showing more loyalty to Israel more than they do to their own country I am a new citizen in the United States and I seem it seems that I have I'm more loyal to my new country than those people where they were born on this uh on its uh soil and they're representing its special interest but it seems that they are representing a foreign country's interest a country that is being financed and funded by our our tax taxpayer tax money and at the end of the day they seem that they're Lo to Israel more than they are loyal to the United States which is really heartbreaking um at the onset of an interview gave to British TV host Pierce Morgan uh you snapped uh used black humor obviously that Palestinians are hard to kill and you know it since your wife is herself Palestinian I understand her family is still in Gaza can you tell us how they are right now well my family right now her family is all of her cousins all of her uncles and families and their kids and their wives they're all uh cramped in one apartment in one building with 35 other families uh and that building is not safe because you know Israel kind of bombed them from the sky so hopefully they will be safe and they will not be uh the whole family will not be annihilated with one bomb um uh these people were living all over Gaza and they were pushed to rafah to the border with Egypt and um uh these people have had dreams had lives had families had homes and all of them were destroyed and they were now cramped into one apartment and uh this is how long America it took America to even consider to look at valestin as human beings that they shouldn't be killed that fast or that rapid which is again very sad um you and others have used the word genocide to describe what uh Israel is doing in in Gaza however uh there was no genocide in Gaza on October 6 isn't Hamas to blame for what is happening to the Palestinians you can blame Hamas for whatever you want but again this is a kind of a distraction of the real issue and if the word genocide bothers you we can use other words how about too much killing how about too much murder would that be that be like a better cord to describe it because this whole thing about wasting people's time about finding definition that doesn't mean anything it really it's just like really counterproductive uh the I don't know what the genocide is it like 50,000 would that be considered a genocide is it 35,000 I mean what is the threshold where we can start doing a genocide and you can blame Hamas all that you want but like I find it very hypocritical that you have the Prime Minister Netanyahu bragging about financing Hamas in 2019 the leud party meeting and then they come here and cry about Hamas uh Hamas is a product of U inhuman conditions and you when you treat people like animals you shouldn't be surprised if they if they revolt against you as enemies right uh you've become a voice for those uh Palestinians uh does it make you comfortable I mean you're a comedian you're speaking about politics very dramatic uh issues are you comfortable in that role or not well I mean I'm I'm it is very difficult to be to have the kind of expectations laid on your shoulders but I mean I come to my your show uh to promote my show and you are the one who's asking me about the alian issue I I I don't push it but people seem to be asking me so I'm not actively pushing it but at the end of time and when I get asked to it I answer it as a human being uh but I'm a comedian I I I don't like to call be called an activist because I don't know even what's the definition of an activist is anymore but I speak my mind when people ask my opinion and it seems if it resonates with people it's not my fault that uh uh people uh that that people label me as activist because I says things that other people think right uh you are are a voice you've criticized Israel obviously uh the West what about other Arab countries I mean uh your native country has a peace treaty with Israel so does Jordan other Arab countries have concluded uh deals with Israel are you surprised that none of them have decided uh to go back on those agreements given the emotion that the issue is creating in their own countries I'm not a politician and I'm not here to comment on other bilateral agreement as of course I as a person I I think that there should be more push back from Arab countries but again this is again a sign a kind of a distraction where you want to disperse and dilute the conversation talking about other things while we ignore what is happening which is the daily killing that's happening every day so that is actually my main issue but I find it like very interesting that like we waste the time of interviews talking about like what Arab countries should do while the the obvious culprit which is Israel will be held accountable for what he's doing every day right uh you've been uh critical of the Biden Administration uh do you think uh Trump would be better no I don't it's not about that it's just like when you say something bad as like okay let's keep that because we don't know if it's going to get worse uh uh the voting system and the Democracy system of the western world is based on trust and based on that the fact that like the the candidate should earn the voter trust to vote for him uh so far I I think the Biden Administration did everything except earning our trust earning our side and basically they're spitting in our faces saying that they don't care about Palestinians being dead so uh um our the Arabs are like 1% Muslims 3% of the the the the US population I I don't think we can hardly swing uh an election maybe in a state or in one state maybe but uh it at the end of the day you cannot come and blame minorities for Trump winning where 66% of the white vote go to Trump right um you've been uh accused since speaking out uh of anti-Semitism how do you react to that does it hurt you does it annoy you or you don't care no no no no it it became an empty accusation it doesn't mean anything anymore there was came a time where the accusation anti-mite would freeze the blood in people's vein not anymore because now it's been overused and it's been manipulated and has been actually abused now they are anti-Semitism for them it means like anti-israel and it's fine to be anti-israel people are anti- Britain anti- us anti France anti- Egypt anti Saudi Arabia and nobody is throwing all kind of all kind of accusation against them because at the end of the day I can be anti anti- certain countries policy if I don't agree with them uh but when you call people anti I mean they call they call Jewish people anti-semite they call rabbis anti-semite they call Jonathan Glazer who is a Jewish Israeli director who won the Oscar about a movie about the Holocaust they call him an anti-semite even there is a story about a French Jew called Steven Hessel Steven H joined the French Resistance against the Nazi and he was jailed in aitz and Steven is when he was really he cannot get more Jewish than that and he was the co-author of the universal Declaration of the human of human rights in the UN and in 2021 he was called an anti-semite because he supported Palestinian CES and supported BDS and they call and they they they they willingly they they just like they throw this away so it doesn't matter anymore I think this accusation of anti-semite is now become a comical accusation doesn't mean anything and by the way I'm an Arab I must imite myself so it's a it's a very laughable accusation uh speaking of that I read that you bought the rights for a book inspired by a true story of an Egyptian Doctor Who Saved 300 Jews from uh the Holocaust including a little girl uh is this true and is this maybe your way of answering uh those accusations no I bought this rights even before all of that happens I bought that rights in March last year uh and I so I already I I was chasing this book for seven years because the the Holocaust is not a Jewish story it's a human story and there is a big role of Arabs in Germany who would the the Jews and the Arabs in Germany were actually very very uh tight-knit community and they Liv together and they and all of that before the formation of Israel I think the Israel uh Israel actions are the biggest thir to Jews all over the world and we need to put things in their own place because anti- anti ism is not anti-Semitism and I'm an anti Zionist I think Zionism is a colonial racist and supremacist ideology and it should not be put upon uh Jewish people to Bear the the sin of such a Despicable movement just as a conclusion on a lighter note if I may you just turned 50 when you left Egypt arrived in La I think I can say you went through some rough year uh you probably thought you wouldn't uh make it back you in the middle of uh this middle Beast tour are you definitely back no I've been touring even before that I mean I have been doing my show even before the war started uh what happened after the war that like I have of course more people coming to my show which I'm very grateful and it was being able to kind of expand expand even more to more countries and more cities but and I'm I I love that like when I'm 50 I'm just turned 50 as you said and I'm doing what I love which is TR and making people laugh and to have your income and your money coming from that Source I think this is the greatest gift ever and I uh and you know Paris I came back to I I did like a a smaller uh room last year 300 people now I'm coming to two diff two bigger theaters in Paris one of them on the 10th of April and one of them is the 5th of May uh and I'm very very glad to meet the French audience again it's been a wonderful experience last year and I'm sure it's going to be even better this year Basim YF that's all we have time for I want to thank you very much for your time and thank you all for watching this edition of tetatet here on friends 24

Channel: FRANCE 24 English

Views: 227,752

Keywords: Gaza Strip, Israel, Israel-Hamas war, anti-Semitism

Id: fhuSVyq7tOs

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2024