In 2022, Egyptian YouTuber Ahmad Elbadawy was in Israel to spread anti-Israel propaganda to his 1.12 million subscribers. He released this video of him freely roaming Tel Aviv, decrying what he saw.
Yeah, I don’t know Arabic either. But AI shows us he was, amongst other things, railing against what he sees as Tel Aviv’s “sexual deviancy”:
“The city in the world that most supports gay rights.”
“God willing, one day it will return and be filled with Arabs instead of being full of young men who, as we said, are mostly gay..”
“In the city of Jaffa. As the Palestinians call it. Or as the whole world calls it, and it is known as Tel Aviv. I am here to show you how much the Jews, wherever they go, look at themselves and others. Tel Aviv has become the number one city in the world in terms of acceptance and prevalence of homosexuality.”
“Do you see the other supermarket? This is a full supermarket that supports homosexuality and on the other side of the street there is like a restaurant or bar that supports homosexuality. They put a full flag, for example 3 or 4 meters in size, on the door of the store. It is almost forbidden to enter unless you are homosexual.”
“Another place that supports sexual reproduction, but with a strong heart…they took all the colors and made a flag out of it..May God stop them…God willing, we will return.”
You get the idea.
Fast forward to a little over a week ago, and Elbadawy goes to Yemen, where things go pear-shaped for him because of the above video, as he explains below (also in Arabic but I include a translation of the “highlights” of his story beneath the video):
“I am currently in Yemeni custody. I was deported from Sana’a and Yemen on charges of supporting homosexuality and espionage. All I had was three days in Sana’a. Of course, they spent all of their time in investigations and detention. As usual, I was handed over. I started to worry. He told me, “This video is the one we are arresting you for.””
“He came in and told me, “By God, you will be detained.”…I went into the office. All the civilians who were in the office came out, and three officers remained.”
“He asked me, “Do you support homosexuality?” I was accused of supporting homosexuality and espionage in Yemen by the Houthis.”
“From the moment I arrived in Sana’a, I was arrested. I was put in prison and under house arrest. I was deported from Sana’a and Yemen on charges of supporting homosexuality and espionage.”
“The officers who were searching with me said to me, “Come on, we found your passport.” So I quickly ran and went with them there. I entered the office. I found the officers. Those who were very interested in me started to leave the office as if they didn’t know me. At that time, I thought that something was wrong because a higher rank intervened in the matter. These small military officers left the room. The office brought out all the civilians who were in the office, and three officers remained. I knew that at that time, the passport intelligence office told me, “But there’s nothing. We’ll investigate you a little bit.” All of this, I thought that the matter was normal.”
“Of course, I am in an unstable country. So when someone comes taking pictures with a camera and investigations, someone who has traveled a lot, he might be investigated in order to get him a visa. This was the case in many countries. So until now, I wasn’t upset. Yes, I was exhausted that the matter took a long time. All I had was three days. On the basis that I had arranged before I came with an official body, with the Ministry of Tourism, the matter takes time. So I went in, and took out my phone. “What are you doing? Who are you, and are you taking pictures? Why?” And normal questions like any intelligence officer. A little while later, the questions started to get strange. “Open your phone. We want to look at the pictures on WhatsApp.””
“They turn it upside down. I’m used to all this and it happened to me before. The strangest question started. “Why did you visit Palestine? Do you know that anyone who visits Israel is forbidden to enter Yemen?” I told the officer, “I didn’t know.”…He started to complete his investigation. There were three officers. One was asking me, one was looking at the phone, and one was looking at me. He started asking me, “Do you support homosexuality?” I told him, “No, I’m a man who memorizes the Book of God and prays. I come from a committed family and I love Arab countries and I’m committed.”… they ask me many random things, “Show me your pictures with your male friends, show me your pictures outside Egypt, show me your pictures in France, how do you live in France, how did you get citizenship, how does your family treat you?”…and after a while, he starts asking me the same repeated question, “Do you support homosexuality?” I tell him, “No, by God, I do not support homosexuality, why do you say this? I made a full video against homosexuality in Tel Aviv, the video you can find on the channel until today, against homosexuality, I do not support homosexuality!””
“”Why? Because it is against our culture, customs, traditions and religion.” He said to me, “Are you sure?” I said, “Are you sure?” The second officer asked me a few more questions. The same officer who asked me twice asked me the second time. I said to him, “Sir, can you open and watch this video? Haven’t you watched it?” He said to me, “What video?” I said to him, “My mobile doesn’t have internet. Can I show it to you from your phone?” So I opened his mobile like this, going to YouTube and showed him this video. He said to me, “This is the video that we are arresting you for. You support homosexuality. You have the gay flag on the cover photo.”
“So, why didn’t you address it? The question is, from the beginning, you told me that this video supports homosexuality or that you are a person who actually supports homosexuality and we doubt you… You see what my background is. You say that you watched the video before accusing me of supporting homosexuality just because you saw the cover photo”…The officer told me, “I saw the video.”
“”We probably had a misunderstanding.” I said, “Okay, thank God, the matter has been resolved.” “But you had an order issued for two things: either you will be deported or you will be arrested.” …I told him, “You have confirmed that I do not do this or that. As far as I am concerned, I am going to our Palestinian lands, and all Yemenis, thank God, treat me with respect because of my videos in Palestine, because of the Yemenis’ greatest support for Palestine. As far as they are concerned, I mean, thank God, I have done something great.”
“I was very surprised by these officers that they were treating me the opposite, accusing me.”
“I felt that the meeting might be messed up and misunderstood… I have no problem going back to the south and getting on the first plane from Sana’a… I did not want to get into a situation where he could open the subject with me for 10 days, a month..”
“The night was spent on the basis that I would go down today to get my passport and get my visa and go take pictures and do everything. At that time, I am in the prison, meaning in the passports and in the investigations and intelligence. I am now packing my bags and going down with them again. We will return to the passports building. They have them until I get the deportation permit. I mean, we are standing now waiting for me to be deported. I went and sat until about an hour.”
“Then they took me back to prison. I have to spend most of the day in passport control. We went to prison. They told me that you will be deported tomorrow. The second day, they told me that you will be deported on the third day. I was afraid of all this…”
“When I spoke with Hamada, my friend, I told him that I am coming. I will speak with the Ministry of Tourism. The Ministry of Tourism welcomed him very much and told him that they would arrange the permits for him… so one of them said to them “Show me his videos” … so he went to look at my YouTube and found a video of Tel Aviv on my back, the homosexual flag in the cover photo. He said “But this one went to Israel and supports the homosexuals”… he informed the intelligence immediately without opening the video, I can’t imagine how all this happened… I mean they accused me of something without even looking at the video. They open it and see what the content of the video is, of course you all understand that this cover photo is a photo to attract attention, so I put the gay flag behind me, but I don’t support, I am against it… they informed the intelligence and the intelligence came and arrested me and investigated me and they discovered that they were wrong, so when they discovered that they were wrong, the matter had developed greatly and reached very high authorities with the Houthis… the whole day I spent in passports and the decision is that I have to leave the country because the matter was wrongly referred to higher authorities.”
“The story turns upside down again… he signs my deportation paper and stamped it, and I didn’t reply, I didn’t speak, but I was broken. I mean, I’m a man, I mean, I try to present the Arab people and all our Arab countries in the best possible light. So when someone comes and says this about me, I excuse him. Maybe he doesn’t know me.”
“The chaos and war and the problems… but at 12 midnight, Officer Mohammed Akam told me, “I received your passport and your visa, and God willing, tomorrow morning the plane leaves at 8 o’clock.” Of course, I booked this plane from my own pocket from Sana’a to Amman. I slept and woke up the next morning, packed my bags, went to the airport, arrived at Sana’a airport… Praise be to God, two days of tension and chaos are over.”
“..this was the story of my deportation and arrest in Yemen on charges of espionage and supporting homosexuality..”
A delightful story, but one that would have been even better had Elbadawy ended up in prison… with his end up.
Hat tip for story: Emily Schrader
