 Did you say like an Islamic entity from the river to the sea? Did you say that? I did. But people who shout from the river to the sea are not really Islamic and many of them don't even agree with Hamas. The river to the sea is a Palestinian shat, it's not an Islamic shat, that's number one. Number two, from the river to the sea is not coined by the Palestinians, it's coined by the Israelis. It's in the Likud Party chart in 1977. They say from the sea to the Jordan they're only going to be Israeli sovereign. So they coined the thing before that. Number one of all, when I criticize Israel, I criticize it because it's in the position of power. I am absolutely no fan of Hamas and you know from my history in Egypt, a Muslim brother who doesn't like me and I don't like them either. I am against a theocracy and I'm against like a religion being in politics and that's why I found it very hypocritical from Israel saying that we are at a secular democratic state and at the same time just like we are a Jewish state. Why are you a theocracy or a democracy? Are you something like for the secular for everybody or are you just like or exclusively for the Jews? So that's why why is it like when the West talks about everything, it's liberal, secular, democratic. Only when it comes to Israel it's biblical. Why? You know, that's the problem. Try to convince me that Israelis have more right in this land, more the Palestinian without using religion. This is the part of the interview that led to its removal by the BBC. We searched for the original video and found out it had long been removed by the BBC hard talk team. Mbassam, the man with a very special sense of humor, decided to end that rough argument that often clouds the topic of the occupation in Palestine. We were thrilled by the argument about how the occupation uses the topic of religion whenever it wants to lay claim to the land of Palestine. Thank you for tuning in to today's news coverage. We strive to provide comprehensive reporting and analysis to keep you abreast of developments in Palestine. Please leave a like and kindly consider sharing and subscribing to our channel for timely updates on the ongoing crisis in Gaza. Israel has always cited the Bible and Torah to support its claims that the land belongs to it, but fails to establish a purely religious state that would obey the tenets of God and His commandments. The current occupation government claims to be a Jewish state, yet it practices a purely secular system where the law of the Torah doesn't determine the law of the state. The current authorities in Palestine are even averse to the word of God as they implement every anti-God policy that has made the secular world uncoordinated. We appreciate Mbassam's argument as it relates to healthy satire, but like the arguments of Norman Finkelstein, Israel as a state and a democracy for that matter has to bear the pains of healthy satire. Its policies and inactions need to be criticized as they relate to Palestine, which are the original of the land. So the idea that the occupation state is immune to criticism is what Mbassam intends to trivialize and expose. Talking like commanding Israel for warning people before they bomb them, it's just what? This is satire. This is satire. The fact that they are killing people and they feel sad about it. And then I read about it. There is an expression in Hebrew called Yorim Vibhushim. Have you heard about it? Yorim Vibhushim. It literally translates to shooting and crying. And it refers to a group of media and books and movies in the Israeli media when the soldiers talk about how sad they are for shooting people and shooting the enemy. We see that in American movies there. It's not about the thousands of people they killed, but it's all about the mental health of the soldiers who pulled the trigger. And that's why it's like, oh, we're killing civilians. It's unfortunate. What? And they guilt-trip you. I'm sorry. I want to say one thing, because I'm sure they say, remember how many times did they bring up Dresden or Hiroshima? It's like, oh, you did it, so we can do it, too. So what's next? The enslaved Palestinians? The enslaved black people? This whole idea about guilt-tripping you, so it's like, I don't think about it. No, no, it's fascinating, but what I'm hearing from you is that a lot of thought you have had about what Israel is doing, what Zionism represents to you. What perhaps I hear less of is your thoughts about Hamas and how you, as a now an Arab American, but as an Egyptian too, how you relate to the Islamism and the commitment to violence and the commitment to establishing a Palestinian Islamic entity from the sea to the river Jordan. How you make sense of that and whether you have a critique of that, too, which you want to express or whether you don't feel able to express that critique? No, no, I'm sorry, did you say like an Islamic entity from the river to the sea? Did you say that? I did. But people who shout from the river to the sea are not really Islamic, and many of them don't even agree with Hamas. The river to the sea is a Palestinian shat, it's not an Islamic shat. That's number one. Number two, from the river to the sea is not coined by the Palestinians, it's coined by the Israelis. It's in the Likud Party chart in 1977. They say from the sea to the Jordan, they're only going to be Israeli sovereignty. So they coined the thing before that. Second of all, when I criticize Israel, I criticize it because it's in the position of power. I am absolutely no fan of Hamas, and you know from my history in Egypt, a Muslim brother who doesn't like me, and I don't like them either. I am against a theocracy, and I'm against like a relation being in politics, and that's why I found it very hypocritical from Israel saying that we are a secular, democratic state, and at the same time we are a Jewish state. Why are you a theocracy or a democracy? Are you something like for the secular for everybody or are you just like exclusive for the Jews? And so that's why, why is it like when the West talks about everything, it's liberal, secular, democratic, only when it comes to Israel it's biblical. Why? You know, that's the problem. Try to convince me that Israel have more right in this land, more the Palestinian, without using religion. They can't. Because it's like, even that the liberal Zionists, they're all about oh we're atheists, we don't believe in God, but oh, but it is, it is that God gave them to their promised people, promised land, promised by whom? Chosen people, chosen by whom? The God, my God, your God? Who's God? So what I get is that you came to this country saying, you know what, I'm done with politics, I'm done with people's expectations that I can somehow deliver change, because I am in the end just a comedian. And here you sit today with doubtless many Arab Americans, but indeed many Arabs in the Arab world and particularly many Palestinians now seeing you as a hugely important voice giving expression to their anger, their feeling that the international media is unfair, feeling that their message never gets through. Are you now feeling uncomfortable again that you've become a messenger? Very, very. I'm scared. I'm scared. And when people come to my show it's like, if you're expected I'm gonna talk about Israel Hamas, no, I've been working on my hour for five years. There is not a single joke. If you come to my show expecting that I'm gonna speak about Pius Morgan and Israel, no, I tell that because I'm a comedian. I'm actually interested in this interface between comedy and the most difficult subjects, and right now one of the most difficult subjects in the world is what's happening in Gaza. Yes. For you as a comedian is it possible, is it possible to find laughs, to make jokes about what is happening? It is very sensitive. It is very sensitive and sometimes you throw certain things in the middle. I was in Australia and I was sold out at the Opera House. And then so they added two extra rows of chairs in front of the front row. And I went out and I said like, and I started making jokes about like those people, the first row, they paid first row and then suddenly they found people coming in and blocking their view. And then I said like, these are not extra chairs, these are illegal sediments, and people laughed. So you have like little things, you know. And I can talk, comedy doesn't have to be insulting, but you are interested about the interface of comedy and politics, and I'll tell you why this is important. You know this whole thing about comedy and I make about PC, political, you cannot say this, you cannot joke about this. Same. Why can't we joke about what Israel is doing? And why is every joke or every criticism in Israel is like as if it's like an anti-Jewish sentiment. It is not. It is not. And this is the thing. But I mean, it's interesting you say that because on the one hand, I totally get it. As a comedian, you want to be free. You want to be free to address even the most difficult issues because God knows the human experience does generate humor and laughs however dark it may be. On the other hand, right now, we know, the figures suggest it's undeniable, that there's a spike in anti-Semitism in the United States, just as there is a spike in Islamophobia and attacks on Arab-Americans. So I just wonder whether you as a comedian feel a responsibility. It's interesting to note that political satire is a very dangerous enterprise for any comedian anywhere, let alone a country like Egypt. With its previous political instability, one can safely conclude that performing as a satirist who targets the bad policies of the government can be misrepresented to mean one is seeking political favor and might warrant unnecessary attention from the government of the day. Basim appeared to be in this position back in Egypt, but there's something striking, he said. He was of the opinion that when he was leaving Egypt, he thought the situation of free speech would be better in the West. But came to realize to his chagrin that free speech in the West is also subjected to some gags. He was surprised that some topics, much like in Egypt, were off limits and couldn't be subjected to appropriate satiric appraisal, something he feels is detrimental to the West's claim to superiority and freedom of expression. He wondered why there's a current climate of victimhood by Israel as a state. For him, it is an aberration to treat the country which is like any other country as a special case. He even dropped a bombshell asking anyone with evidence that they are a chosen people to come forward and present it. From our perspective, he is right from the standpoint of the world's advancement from ancient medieval battles of conquest. At the time of the occupation, the world had condemned the unlawful grabbing of people's land based on any folklore related to past ownership. This was what the Germans did in Poland, and the world stood up against it and defeated it. The understanding was that no other powerful group would emerge from somewhere and claim to own a people's common wealth based on stories of the past, whether they be of the scriptures or historical records. Yet the West appears to have supported the displacement of Palestinians and eventual occupation of their land till date. Bassem has a very serious answer to that. You were pretty bitter when you left Egypt. I know you felt persecuted because you were. I mean, there were lawsuits against you. There were threats against you. The CC regime had come into power, and they certainly didn't want your TV show to continue. But not only that, I think you felt, correct me if I'm wrong, I think you felt many Egyptians accused you of a sort of betrayal because you didn't stick with them. Yeah, that is the problem of iconization, people. I was a comedian doing what our comedians do. And then suddenly, because you do your job well, other than not like people in politics or media who mess things up, because my bread and butter is making fun of this. That's my job. So people look at people who are good at their jobs, and then suddenly they consider them their voice, their representation. And that's wrong, because I'm not. So at a certain point when you can do that. They might say to you, what? You mean you didn't mean it? When you were mocking CC and the regime, you didn't really care about the future of the regime? Of course I care. But at a certain point, I'm a human being. And there's personal safety, and there's family safety, and the people I care about them. So now I have to balance between hurting the people that I care about, or continue being the voice of the people which doesn't work. But couldn't you have been an agent of change in Egypt if you'd chosen to stay? And there's one great example that you might look to and say, you know what? I could have been a bit like him. What about Volodymyr Zelensky? He was a TV comedian, a huge success in Ukraine. And he translated that into, well, we know. So you think if I've stayed in Egypt, I would be now like Volodymyr Zelensky, not in somewhere else more cozy and warmer and darker? You mean a prison cell? Maybe. You explained to our viewers and listeners around the world why it is impossible to imagine that you could have made that move into, let's say, activism, political activism, to becoming a voice for the people who wanted change in your country. That's not my role. Not every comedian who's good at his job should be a politician. The fact that you say something and reason this with people doesn't mean that you have to go and lead the people into politics. I'm a comedian. You never had any interest in that. I never know. Because no, because I love comedy as it is. Because I don't want to be an activist or a politician or a freedom fighter or a thought leader. I'm not. That's the problem. People get so fascinated with comedians. You're the philosophers of our ages. No, we're comedians. We just point out stuff. And it's up to the people to make their change. Basically, that's our role. Our role ends at the edge of the theater and the edge of the television. Some people might take it further. I respect that. But for me, I prefer to stay in my comedy box. Going back to the transition in the United States, I just looked at the way your career worked when you first came here. It was tough at the beginning. I mean, you were going to clubs in the US where audiences didn't like you, didn't find you funny. There were guys 20 years younger than you, getting more laughs than you. Yeah. And I would go back home crying. And I said to him, well, I guess I'm done. And the fall, the rise and the fall was very steep. I went up very fast. And I went down very fast. And now it's happening again. I was like, oh my god. Here we go again. When is this going to end? Well, hang on. I'm not sure I'm following this trajectory right now. Are you on the hunt? Yeah, well, just because of a couple of interviews, I'm trending now. I was like, whoa. And I hear the same thing. You're our voice. Thank you for representing us. Like, guys, I'm a comedian. I get invited to places and to interviews. And I speak my mind. Sometimes it's comedic. Sometimes it's serious. But it is very, very dangerous to iconize people. Because when you iconize people and you make them represent a cause, that is the worst thing that you can do for the cause. Something really changed with the sort of seismic terrible events of October 7 and what happened after that in Israel. Something changed for you, because you chose to speak to the international media about your feelings as an Arab-American comic about what you were seeing back in your life. Not as an actor, not as a politician, but as a human. And because I have a little bit of fame, I was invited on shows. So I speak up. That is my role. And I want to continue doing it. But when I get invited and do places, because I think it's unfair, I was very kind of be very honest. I was very, I didn't care about what's happened. I consider the Middle East problem is that chronic problems never go away. But sometimes you wake up, I said like this. You mean before October 7, you were sitting there in LA thinking, you know what, the last thing I want to give my mind to is thinking about the Israel-Palestine problem. It's a chronic problem that nobody wants to get. You get there, it's quicksand. You get sucked in. How can you talk about anything that all of these regimes, all of these countries, have failed? So I said, this is like a hornet nest. And then what happens, I still didn't want to get in. But then when I saw the people, the pro-Israeli people talking on the media, and I got my blood was boiling. Because it's like, this is plain lies. This is plain lies. And I think it triggered something in me. I left Egypt because I was not able to say what's on my mind. And I came here for the land of the free, the home of the brave, where you can say anything you want. And then suddenly, when you speak about certain things, you get accused of all things right, left, and center. If I'm criticizing Israel, why is this anti-Semitic? One thing we cannot overlook from this interview is the honesty of Basem Yusef in addressing the intrinsic problem in Palestine, that the people were occupied and dictated to, that the Palestinians currently do not have a government and that most of the resistances are unorganized and cannot be entirely blamed for what is going on in Gaza. While appearing to condemn some of the military actions of Palestinian resistance groups, he suggested that the government in Tel Aviv should do more than just keep the Palestinians in perpetual servitude. He suggested that freedom should be accorded to the Palestinians and they should be free to choose their government. Also, within the periscope of this thinking, Basem seems to believe that fair treatment of the Palestinians would bring about peace in the peninsula and end the constant war that has characterized relations there for over 70 years. That for us would actually be the end of the construction of settler apartments in Palestinian lands and respect for the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Thank you for watching this news update. Please consider sharing it with your family and friends. Don't forget to subscribe for the latest developments from Palestine until our next update. Peace.