Thursday, October 19, 2023
Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef appeared on British presenter Piers Morgan's show "Piers Morgan Uncensored", discussing the treatment of Palestinians and Israel's bombing of Gaza.
Clips of Youssef's sarcastic comments about the war between Israel and Gaza during the interview went viral on social media platforms.
While Youssef described the attack as "horrific", he also spoke of the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and civilian casualties during continued Israeli retaliatory airstrikes.
In the video, Youssef criticized Hamas fighters and tried to make clear that people have become numb to the fact that civilian casualties are an inevitable part of warfare.
Youssef began sarcastically: “We get all the news second hand because my wife's family lives in Gaza. They have cousins and uncles there and their house was also bombed.
"We haven't been able to communicate with them for the past three days. Communication has been lost, so we don't know how they are doing, but that's what we're used to!"
"Palestinians never die"
One moment netizens were quick to notice was when Youssef made a sarcastic remark about Palestinians.
He said: "It's very repetitive. We're used to it... It's like the Palestinians are very dramatic, 'Oh, Israel is killing us'. But they never die. They always come back.
"They are very hard to kill. I know because I am married to one. I tried many times, I could not kill."
"I've tried to reach her many times, but she uses our children as human shields. I can never get her out," Youssef said with a serious face.
The dark humor in bassem youssef's intro on the piers morgan show was just genius 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/dpgUZM0xCK
— EL MORABIT M'HAMED (@spacetimeripple) October 17, 2023
Bassem Youssef's take on Ben Shapiro
Youssef mocked American columnist Ben Shapiro for publicly supporting Israeli "self-defense" and questioned how the occupation could defend itself.
In an earlier appearance on the show, Shapiro said: "The only solution to the war between Israel and Gaza is that Israel should annex Gaza and kill as many people as possible so that what is happening does not happen again."
Responding to Shapiro's remarks, Youssef said, "More than 3,500 people have been killed so far. How many more people do we need to kill to make Ben Shapiro happy?"
The satirist then went on to mock the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), saying: "I applaud Israel for doing something no military force in the world does. Warn civilians before bombing them, that's so cute."
"I asked my wife's family if Hamas forced them to stay at home so they could be bombed and used as human shields, and she denied it," he told Morgan.
Why are people being killed in the West Bank?
While Youssef agreed that Hamas fighters should be eradicated, he questioned why people were being killed in the West Bank, where Hamas is not present.
"What's the excuse for killing people there?" said Bassem Youssef.
Asked if he was Israeli and what happened to him, Youssef said: "I would kill as many people as possible because the world allows me to."
"Let's for a minute imagine a world without Hamas. What will this world look like? Let's give this world a name and let's name this world, the West Bank."
— Suchitra Vijayan (@suchitrav) October 18, 2023
- Bassem Youssef on the Piers Morgan show
pic.twitter.com/t8Xp1H8GKY
Hamas is the source of all evil. Let's imagine a world without Hamas. Let's name this world "West Bank". 37 Palestinian children were killed - no music festival, no paragliding, no Hamas.
