'Anti-Semitism has become a comical accusation': Comedian Bassem Youssef • FRANCE 24 English

Hello and welcome to Tetatet Prin 24's flagship talk show, our guest today is Basim Yusf, a cardiac surgeon turned

comedian

who became famous a decade ago during the Arab Spring in his native Egypt, as such he became a thorn in the eyes of the authority he decided to leave, he is now an American citizen and is currently having his second coming, if I may use Expression as an English commander, his Beast intermedia tour is now in full swing in the US, Middle East and Europe, comes together. we from Dubai basam YF thank you very much, thank you very much for inviting me to your show, your current show does not touch on the war in Gaza, however, you have reached a deep court in the Muslim world by speaking vividly about it, uh, you.

He said this was due to anger and frustration at the way the conflict was being portrayed in the West, especially in the Western media. Do you still feel angry as we reach almost six months of war in Gaza? Yes, because it seems that no matter how much of a kind of atrocities and how much aggression and how unjust this war has

become

and how authoritative and uh and uh and uh and aggressive Israel it seems that people like to turn around and make eyes. fat uh for uh actions that could only be described as war crimes or war crimes, but it seems like it's very frustrating to see that the freedom of speech and the fairness and the justice that the West promised the world are 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 massacre is disappearing in Europe, even in the US.

Do you see growing tensions between the Biden administration? You even heard Donald Trump in a recent interview say that Israel needs to make peace because it is losing so much of the world, don't you think things are changing? Yes, it's sad, it took them killing 32,000 people to get there, it seems the same as Israel. again with the right of him, I just wonder why it took so long and and and and and and what was the threshold for people to say anything, but even like the Biden Administration, what did they do a couple of days ago? if they abstained from a Security Council resolution that means nothing and, um, there's a bigger problem here, it's not about Gaza or this is what they want you to believe, it's about Gaza, it's about Palestine, around the 7th October.

There's a much bigger problem here is that the kind of way Israel stays in Western politics, I don't know, and I said it before in an interview. I don't understand why my American representatives are showing more loyalty. to Israel more than they to their own country I am a new citizen in the United States and it seems that it seems so. I am more loyal to my new country than to those people where they were born in this uh on their uh soil and they are representing their special interest, but it seems that they are representing the interest of a foreign country, a country that is being financed and financed by our taxes , the taxpayers' tax money and, at the end of the day, it seems that they are Lo for Israel. more than they are loyal to the United States, which is truly heartbreaking.

At the beginning of an interview with British television presenter Pierce Morgan, you blurted out, using dark humour, obviously, that Palestinians are hard to kill and you know it because your wife is herself. Palestine, I understand your family is still in Gaza, can you tell us how they are now? Well, my family right now his family is all his cousins, all his uncles and families, his children and their wives, they are all squeezed into one. apartment in a building with 35 other families uh and that building is not safe because you know Israel bombed them from the sky so hopefully they will be safe and they won't be uh the whole family won't be wiped out with a bomb um uh these people lived all over Gaza and they were pushed to rafah to the border with Egypt and um uh these people had dreams, they had lives, they had families, they had homes and they were all destroyed and now they were crammed into an apartment and uh, this is How long did it take Would the United States even consider considering Valestin as human beings who should not be killed so quickly or so quickly, which is again very sad?

You and others have used the word genocide to describe what Israel is doing in Gaza, however, there was no genocide in Gaza on October 6, is Hamas not to blame for what is happening to the Palestinians? You can blame Hamas for whatever you want, but again, this is kind of a distraction from the real problem and if the word genocide bothers you. We can use other words. How about too many murders? How about too many murders? Would it be better to describe it because all this wastes people's time looking for a definition that doesn't really mean anything?

It's really counterproductive huh, I don't know what genocide is, 50,000 would be considered genocide, is it 35,000? I mean, what is the threshold at which we can start committing genocide and you can blame Hamas all you want? but I find it very hypocritical for Prime Minister Netanyahu to brag about funding Hamas at the 2019 Leud party meeting and then come here and cry for Hamas. Hamas is a product of inhumane conditions and you when you treat people like animals. You shouldn't be surprised if they rebel against you as enemies, right, you have

become

a voice for those Palestinians, does that make you feel comfortable?

I mean, you're a

comedian

, you're talking about politics, very dramatic topics. Are you comfortable in that role or are you not okay? I mean, it's really hard to have the kind of expectations placed on your shoulders, but I mean, I come on your show to promote my show and you're on it. The one who asks me about the Allian issue. 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, when they ask me, I respond like a human being. Uh, but I'm a comedian.

I don't like being called an activist because I don't even know what the definition of an activist is anymore, but I say what I think when people ask me my opinion and it seems to resonate with People, it's not my fault that those people label me an activist because I say things that other people think well, you are a voice that has criticized Israel, obviously, the West, what about other Arab countries, I mean, your My home country has a peace treaty with Israel and Jordan does too. Other Arab countries have concluded agreements with Israel. Are you surprised that none of them have decided to back down on those agreements given the excitement the issue is creating in their own countries?

I am not a politician and I am not here to comment on other bilateral agreements because of course, as a person, I think there should be more pushback from Arab countries, but again this is a signal, a kind of distraction to where you want. disperse and dilute the conversation by talking about other things while ignoring what is happening, which is the daily carnage that happens every day, so that is actually my main topic, but I find it very interesting that we waste interview time talking of things like What should Arab countries do while the obvious culprit, which is Israel, will be held accountable for what it is doing every day?

You have been critical of the Biden administration. Do you think Trump would be better? No I dont think so. It's not about that, it's like when you say something bad, okay, let's stick with it because we don't know if it's going to get worse uh uh, the voting system and the democracy system in the Western world is based on trust and that. the fact that like the candidate he would have to earn the trust of the voters to vote for him, so far I think the Biden administration has done everything except earn our trust, earn our share and they're basically spitting in our faces saying that they don't care.

The Palestinians are dead, so, um, our Arabs are like 1% Muslim, 3% of the American population. I don't think we can change an election, maybe in a state or in a state, maybe, but in the end. of the day you can't come and blame minorities for Trump's victory, where 66% of the white vote is for Trump, right, you have been accused of anti-Semitism since you spoke, how do you react to that? It hurts? bother you or you don't care no no no no it became an empty

accusation

it no longer means anything there was a time when the anti-mite

accusation

would freeze the blood in people's veins not anymore because now it has been overused and manipulated and it's actually been abused now it's anti

semitism

for them it means like anti-Israel and it's okay to be anti-Israel people are anti-Britain anti-USA anti France anti-Egypt anti Saudi Arabia and no one is Throwing all kinds of accusations against them because at the end of the day I can be against the politics of certain countries if I don't agree with them, but when you call people against it, I mean they call Jews against it. -semite they call rabbis anti-semitic they call Jonathan Glazer who is an Israeli Jewish director who won the Oscar for a film about the Holocaust they call him anti-semitic there is even a story about a French Jew named Steven Hessel Steven H joined the French Resistance against the Nazis and was imprisoned in Aitz and Steven is when he really was, he can't be more Jewish than that and he was co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the UN and in 2021 He was called an anti-Semitic because he supported the Palestinian CES and supported BDS and they call and they, they, they, willingly, they just like it, they throw this in the trash, so it doesn't matter anymore.

I think this anti-Semitic accusation has now become a

comical

accusation that means nothing and by the way, I'm an Arab, I have to imitate myself, so it's a very ridiculous accusation. Speaking of which, I read that you bought the rights to a book inspired by a true story of an Egyptian. Doctor who saved 300 Jews from the Holocaust, including a girl, is it true? Is this perhaps your way of responding? Not those accusations. I bought these rights before all that even happened. I bought those rights in March of last year, and I. So I was already chasing this book for seven years because the Holocaust is not a Jewish story, it is a human story and there is an important role of the Arabs in Germany, who knew that the Jews and the Arabs in Germany were actually very, very narrow? -a united community and they live together and they and all that before the formation of Israel.

I think the actions of Israel uh Israel are the greatest thirst for Jews around the world and we need to put things in their own place because anti-antiism is not anti-Semitism and I am anti-Zionist. I believe that Zionism is a racist and colonial supremacist ideology and the Jewish people should not be forced to bear the sin of such a despicable movement just as a conclusion on a lighter note. If you allow me, you just turned 50 when you left Egypt and came to Los Angeles. I think it's safe to say you've had a tough year. You probably thought you wouldn't come back.

You're in the middle of this Beast tour. Definitely? back no, I've been on tour even before, I mean, I've been doing my show even before the war started, uh, what happened after the war is that of course more people came to my show, which I'm very grateful and it was being able to expand expand even more to more countries and more cities, but I love that, when I'm 50 years old, I just turned 50 like you said and I'm doing what I love, which is TR and making people laugh and that your income and your money come from that source.

I think this is the best gift ever and I, and you know, I went back to Paris. I liked a smaller room last year, 300 people now I go. to two larger theaters in Paris, one of them on April 10 and the other on May 5, and I am very happy to meet the French public again. Last year was a wonderful experience and I'm sure this year will be even better 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.