Jewish group urges Tony Burke to block comedian from touring Australia
The country’s top Jewish group is calling on Home Secretary Tony Burke to refuse the visa of a well-known comedian who called Israelis “genocidal… scum” and accused Israel of bombing its own embassy, reviving a debate about the limits of free speech on polarizing issues.
Described as the “Jon Stewart of Egypt,” Egyptian-American satirist Bassem Youssef is scheduled to perform in major venues including Sydney and Melbourne in August and September. Tickets are already on sale.
Journalist Piers Morgan’s interview with Youssef shortly after the October 7 attacks, in which Youssef compared Israel’s behavior in Gaza to Russia’s war against Ukraine, has been viewed almost 24 million times on YouTube.
Earlier this year, Youssef shared a video of an interview with far-right activist Candace Owens on social media. Owens described the 1994 bombing of the Israeli embassy in London as a “false flag” operation carried out by the Israeli spy agency Mossad.
Two Palestinian men were convicted of taking part in planning the attack, but former British intelligence officer Annie Machon claimed Mossad was behind the explosion.
Machon also said that the September 11 attacks on the United States were orchestrated by the US government as a pretext for war and social control.
Youssef called the September 11 attacks a false flag operation in the same interview with Owens, who Burke denied the visa on the grounds that it could incite discord in 2024.
In a social media post promoting his stand-up tour in the US and Europe, Youssef said he had to “spend a lot of time proving to the world how terrible the Israelis are, how genocidal, cruel, ruthless, just assholes the Israelis are” and that they then often did it for him.
Peter Wertheim, co-chairman of the Executive Council of Australian Jews, said: “A visa to Australia should not be granted to anyone from overseas who has a history of making derogatory generalizations about entire national or religious communities.
“Such rhetoric must not be allowed to poison our political discourse or create and encourage completely unfounded feelings of grievance, fear, suspicion and hatred among different sections of Australian society.
“At a time when there are unprecedented pressures on the peace and harmony of our country, [antisemitism] “As a royal commission, the government needs to lead by example and implement a zero-tolerance policy towards racism in granting this person a visa.”
The council appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in an attempt to persuade the government to refuse Youssef’s visa.
Nasser Mashni, president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, accused the council of trying to stifle freedom of expression and said antisemitism should not be used as a cover to protect Israel from criticism.
“This is not about the security of society. This is about defining the prism through which the ECAJ, a self-appointed political thought police, can criticize a foreign state and political ideology,” he said.
Youssef, who as a television presenter in Egypt criticized Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, said he used dark humor to debunk stale narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He said he would not let accusations of anti-Semitism deter him from criticizing Israel.
“You cannot continue to criminalize people with accusations of being ‘anti-Semitic.’ Your victimhood card has expired,” he said in a 2024 social media post.
Burke’s office has been contacted for comment. Youssef and the company promoting his tour were also contacted for comment.
Israel faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice from South Africa over its handling of the war in Gaza, where more than 75,000 Palestinians were killed in the first 15 months of the conflict. Lancet medical journal.
Israel denied the charge of genocide.
Burke himself intervened to cancel dozens of visa applications on the grounds that the visitor could undermine social cohesion in Australia and said freedom of expression was not his top priority.
“I don’t really care about getting criticism about freedom of expression. Like, I don’t care,” Burke said in this article last year, adding that he took a tougher approach than his predecessors on approving visas.
In addition to Owens, Burke also refused visas to former Israeli cabinet minister Ayelet Shaked and Israeli politician Simcha Rothman, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs also canceled the visa given to a Palestinian writer who allegedly celebrated Hamas’ October 7 massacre.
Burke was considering denying a visa to controversial Israeli journalist Zvi Yehezkeli earlier this year, but the war in Iran prevented Yehezkeli from traveling.
Youssef has almost 10 million followers on X and wrote in a memoir in 2017: Revolution for Dummies: Laughing at the Arab Spring.
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