9/11 and Israel ‘false flag’ conspiracy theorist to headline Royal Albert Hall

The Royal Albert Hall has defended its decision to host an Egyptian-American comedian who has shared claims that Israel “uses kids to sexually blackmail people”, kidnapped Yemenite Jews to plant “Semitic DNA” into the Israeli gene pool and bombed its own embassy in the UK in 1994 – with the iconic venue saying it “has no reason to believe this show will contain antisemitic material”.

Bassem Youssef, who left Egypt in 2014 and has since become an American citizen, is perhaps best known in the public domain as a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, particularly via his performances on the Piers Morgan Show. However, Youssef regularly shares and promotes conspiracy theories about Israelis and “Zionists” on social media.

One such post from Youssef featured a meme showing a picture of the United States Congress next to destruction in Gaza. The wording of the meme read: “Israel uses kids to sexually blackmail people here so it can bomb kids over there”. Youssef also shared a video from far-left outlet Dropsite News claiming Israel tried to blackmail Bill Clinton into releasing the spy Jonathan Pollard. Youssef wrote: “Reposting this again and again. This is the world we live in. Israel’s Mossad use sex scandals and tapes to blackmail American presidents and politicians and celebrities. Whether it was the Monica Lewinsky tape, Epstein or the likes.”

Another post from Youssef, whose wife is believed to come from Gaza, featured a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a mocked up Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? background, instead titled “Who wants to do a false flag?”, with the question: “To drag the US into a war with Iran you will:” … and the options being: “Attack US ship, Attack US base, Assassinate US official, Conduct ‘terrorism’ on US soil”.

In his February 2026 appearance on the podcast of conspiracy theory promoter Candace Owens, Youssef described several terror attacks as “false flag operations”, including the 1994 bombing of the Israeli embassy in London, which he alleged “was done by Mossad”. The video footage from the Candace Owens Show, in which Youssef also describes 9/11 as “the biggest false flag operation”, later shows the claim that Arnon Milchan, an Israeli film producer behind some of Hollywood’s biggest feature movies, “months before 9/11 produces a film episode in which remote controlled planes hit buildings”.

The video also promotes conspiracy theories claiming that Israel was responsible for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, a radio device in Libya which led to Ronald Reagan bombing Libya in 1986 and that Mossad “created the foe for the war on terror” by alleging that Mossad funded and trained Osama bin Laden in the early 1980s. Youssef shared the video with the caption: “A terrible history of lying”.

Jewish News believes Youssef was referring to Israel rather than himself.

In another podcast appearance, Yousef claimed, speaking about Israel, that: “I have never heard of a secular, democratic country that would kidnap little kids from Yemeni Jews in 1950 and then take them away and tell their parents that they died – and they did that in order to instil Semitic DNA in their population – that’s why DNA testing is banned in Israel”.

The population of Israel rose from 800,000 to two million between 1948 and 1958, due to a huge influx of Jews from other Middle Eastern countries. Though there were documented cases of children being taken away from their refugee parents, three separate official commissions found that the overwhelming majority of children who were taken from their parents had subsequently died of diseases and had been buried. While there may have been instances of Yemenite Jewish children being taken from their birth parents and given to childless Ashkenazi couples, as has been alleged, the notion that this was done to “instil Semitic DNA in their population” is a conspiracy theory with no basis in fact. The claim that Israel bans DNA testing is also false.

In late 2025, Youssef described on Egyptian television how he agrees that Hamas are terrorists when asked about it on English talk shows because that enables him to get past the topic and talk about what he wants to talk about – Israeli brutality. When pro-Israel accounts noted his comments, Youssef posted a rant aimed at what he described as “Zionist accounts that are paid 7000 dollars per post” – a new conspiracy theory based on a report claiming that Israel – in common with many other countries, paid some social media influencers to promote the country.

Youssef said: “What I said there in Arabic I said it in English many times for people to search it. I said they want to make the whole interview about whether Hamas is a terrorist group because they don’t care about debate, they just care about ruining the conversation. I am focused on the real criminal, the real occupiers the real killer, which is Israel. Everything Hamas did was a result for what Israel did.

“And I stand by everything that I said: there was no rape, no decapitated babies, no babies in ovens, no murdered pregnant women. It was all a lie. All propaganda that was pushed by New York Times and CNN and all the mainstream media.

“And when it comes to terrorism, Israel and the IDF and its bloodthirsty citizens are the biggest terrorists. Nothing can be compared to what those criminals do every day. No one is scared of your accusations and your paid posts that are retweeted by bots and other paid assholes . F**k Israel f**k Zionism. Here, retweet this and get another 7000 dollars from your hasbara pimps.”

Jewish News presented the Royal Albert Hall with these posts, as well as a number of others – most of which were posted by Youssef last year.

The Royal Albert Hall responded, saying:“The Hall has been booked by Bassem Youssef’s promoter to host a new stand-up show on its global tour which opens in the US on 20 March. We have been told that the show contains new material reflecting on global politics, cultural identity, media narratives and his own experiences, and follows his world tour in 2024. We currently have no reason to believe that this show will contain any antisemitic material, but we would certainly take appropriate action if it did (as we would with any event containing racist material).”

Responding to the news of Youssef’s forthcoming appearance at one of the UK’s most celebrated venues, the Board of Deputies said: “We are deeply concerned that this individual has been given a prestigious platform at the Royal Albert Hall. Our leading cultural institutions have a duty to not platform those who normalise extremism, conspiracism, and division.”

A Jewish Leadership Council spokesperson said: “Bassem Youssef has repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that appears to dehumanise Jews and Israelis. This is not merely satire or legitimate political criticism. In our view, it amounts to the repetition of some of the oldest and most dangerous antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories.

“The Jewish community in Britain knows all too well where such language can lead. There are serious questions for the Royal Albert Hall in accepting this booking. It is also open to the Home Secretary to consider whether his entry into the UK would be conducive to the public good.”

A spokesperson for CST said: “Bassem Youssef may present himself as a comedian, but his public record includes antisemitic hatred, which is never funny. At a time of rising antisemitism, major cultural institutions such as the Royal Albert Hall should show much more responsibility about providing a platform to someone with that kind of record, with the risks it involves of further spreading hatred and division.”

A Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesperson said: “This extremist conspiracy theorist should not be given a platform on one of the most prestigious stages in the country. The Royal Albert Hall is sending an appalling message to the Jewish community. It is a slap in the face to the many Jews who have done so much for that institution over many, many years. We consider that Bassem Youssef has made sufficiently extreme comments that we plan to ask the Home Secretary to ban him from the UK on the grounds that his presence would not be conducive to the public good.

“Dismissing barbaric acts of sexual violence committed by Hamas during the 7 October atrocity, as ‘propaganda’ and propounding false conspiracies about the Jewish state and antisemitism should not be welcome in Britain.”

Youssef has repeatedly denied being an antisemite, usually via the rhetorical device of describing himself – an Egyptian Arab – as a Semite, and asking how he can be ‘anti’ himself.

However, late last year he tweeted: “The overuse of the stupid empty accusation of ‘antisemitism’ is like a used condom at this point. It’s overstretched, lost all protection and no one wants to touch it.”