“Lockdowns Work if You Don't Want Your Freedoms”： Avi Yemini Exclusive Interview
Episode Stats
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Summary
Avi Yimeni is an Australian-Israeli reporter, YouTuber, and host of Rebel News in Australia. He's known for his work with Rebel News, as well as his work on YouTube, where he has nearly half a million subscribers. In this episode, Avi talks about how he got started in journalism, and how he became an independent journalist. He also talks about his experiences in the Israeli army, and his views on the current events happening in the world.
Transcript
00:00:07.380
Breaking news. Our first fightthefines.com.au challenge has won.
00:00:15.100
Have you seen Donald Trump? Do you think he should step in?
00:00:17.680
Donald Trump, don't trust China. China is asshole.
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Should we believe anything the CCP, anything the Chinese government is telling us about coronavirus?
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It is a very short answer. As I mentioned, don't trust China. China is asshole. All the people is asshole.
00:00:37.260
What gives anyone the right to tell anyone where they can and can't live?
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When you import this culture, what do you think is going to happen?
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Australia is going to end up the same shithole that they came from that they were escaping.
00:00:48.920
Watch how Jim Jeffries has edited this last clip to make me look like an ass.
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What gives anyone the right to tell anyone where they can and can't live?
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I know borders, but wouldn't it just be nice if we got to a place in society where we had no idea, a utopia, where we all just lived as well?
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Well, I think if they go in jail, there must be some reason.
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You don't think that the communist government is a little bit dodgy?
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Really? The white South Africans now that are about 30 years old stole land?
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No, but that's the history of the place. That's the history of South Africa.
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Can you sign our South African, white South African, we want to bring in the refugees from South Africa?
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I would prefer if the Rohingya came here first.
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He's known for his work with TR News as an independent YouTuber and, of course, for his work with Rebel News in Australia on fightthefines.com.au.
00:02:03.700
You can find him on Twitter at AzraeliAvi, Instagram, AzraeliAviYimeni, and he has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube.
00:02:11.660
And while we're here, if you want to go to therebelnewsstore.com, you can use Andrew10 for a discount on all our new merch, including this great cook we have here.
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Starting with the accent already. You're going to crack me up.
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Yeah, I'm at home at the moment. It's 9 o'clock in the morning. I'm having my morning coffee, getting ready to head to the gym, in my gym wear.
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So, I'd like to start these off by mentioning how I first came across the guest.
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Like so many people, I remember you from your YouTube channel and your work on TR News.
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My question to you is, what was the moment where you started deciding to do more journalism, more YouTube videos?
00:03:03.460
I mean, I think you started with what, self-defense videos online?
00:03:06.740
How did you make the jump to journalism, so to speak?
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I actually owned two 24-hour fighting gyms in Melbourne after the, when I finished my service in the Israeli army.
00:03:23.320
There was a period where Israel had gone into Gaza in one of these operations.
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And I remember just watching the mainstream media reporting on it here, our ABC, the Australian Broadcasting News Service.
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And I was watching it angrily and seeing how they were telling one side of the story.
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And it certainly wasn't a side of democracy and freedom.
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And so I just, at the time, we had a, quite a large Facebook presence.
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And I just started from our business, which was IDF training, because it was Israeli army style self-defense.
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And I remember I started posting, you know, my thoughts on the situation on the ground as somebody who served for a number of years there in that exact location.
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And, you know, it caused a little bit of controversy.
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Not that I cared, because at the end of the day, I thought, well, you're coming to an IDF training gym to learn Israeli Krav Maga.
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If you don't stand with Israel, then I don't really, I don't even know why you're here.
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It's the principles of Israeli self-defense, which is applied in the Israeli army.
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So the fight that you're learning here, and this is how I justified it to myself and others that tried to give me any kind of advice.
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But after that whole situation ended, it sparked a lot of conversation.
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And I guess I found a voice, and I did start posting my political opinions on different situations or reporting different things.
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And I got, I guess, constructive criticism from people whom I don't even know if they aligned with my views at the time.
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I don't know if you should use your platform here where you have two good, successful gyms to push you.
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And that's when I opened an Avia Mini Facebook page at the time.
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It's probably six years later, seven years later.
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And it's my full-time gig, first at TR and now at my home at Rebel News right here with you.
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What was the first video you had that was completely politics that blew up?
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The first one that blew up, probably from memory, and I don't know, I don't have the best memory on these situations.
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They're trying to interrupt us with the group meeting.
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The first one that blew up from memory, and my memory is not that great, so if I remember correctly,
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I did a lot of rants at the time to Facebook Live.
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That's when Facebook was kind of okay, and they didn't censor everyone.
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But my first proper report was, I think, at a...
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I went to one of these pro-refugee rallies, and I decided to ask them if they would sign my petition
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Well, I framed it, the refugees from South Africa, which were the white farmers.
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And, yeah, I guess that was probably the first one that really blew up from memory.
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The one that I wanted to comment and ask you about is the one that...
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Was it Trump Jr., or who retweeted the China is asshole guy?
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That was the face of 2020, or at least for the first half of 2020, especially after the
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That was one of the first times I worked with Rebel News in Hong Kong.
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So I was working for TR, and Ezra contacted me to see if I would go over to Hong Kong and
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And that moment, you know, I reflect on it now, because at the time when we were filming
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It was just a passionate guy speaking his mind.
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And then, I think it even took a month after it was...
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It was just part of one of the stories we did on the ground during the Hong Kong protests.
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When you're in Hong Kong, like, I'm guessing you're not a guy who walks down the street and
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has fear of being beaten up in Australia or in the UK or whatever.
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When you're in Hong Kong, is there a different feeling?
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Like, you know, mainland China doesn't want this place to even...
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They don't want them to have their own government, their own electoral system.
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They don't want them to have their own freedom.
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What's the feeling like when you're in Hong Kong, and especially a person that people
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know of, and they might be coming after, were you worried you're going to get kidnapped?
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What's the feeling like while you're doing journalism in Hong Kong protests?
00:09:07.460
I think now, it's very different now because of the new security law.
00:09:13.160
You know, I've had conversations with Ezra saying, oh, I just want to go back.
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And obviously, taking, making that move, going, heading to Hong Kong now comes with that risk
00:09:27.720
of being shipped back to mainland China in breach of that security risk.
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So, we might have to sit on it and think of it.
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But, but back when I went, and I went a couple of times, well, the first time I just, I went
00:09:44.620
there as somebody that no one in Hong Kong really knew, just another Western reporter.
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What I found is that when you're, when you're there, and I think that time maybe Ken was
00:09:57.340
there too, at the time, or that was the second time, I can't remember.
00:10:00.480
But when you, when you walk around, it was just, things were normal unless you, um, headed
00:10:06.020
to the actual protest and you kind of followed them around.
00:10:08.960
It was, it was bizarre because there were pockets of protests that were always moving and the
00:10:14.720
rest of the city was kind of functioning around that.
00:10:17.020
And it's a city that, you know, it goes for, uh, into the night almost, it's almost 24 seven.
00:10:24.280
Then the second time you'd seen a shift towards where we are now, where the protest was more
00:10:34.220
Um, and it was also very different for me personally, because when I went there, I was already known
00:10:39.780
by Hong Kongers as that Australian that challenged mainlanders in Australia.
00:10:45.120
And some of the videos that I did for TR at the time, um, actually were far more popular
00:10:51.600
in Asia, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, uh, and places like that.
00:10:57.780
Um, so you walk down the street and, and you kind of, you know, you feel the sense of appreciation
00:11:03.520
and love by Hong Kongers that we're doing that work.
00:11:07.260
Um, but now I couldn't tell you, I really miss Hong Kong.
00:11:17.180
They have that gentle, respectful Asian culture, but then they also bring that Western way of
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And they, you know, it's very sad to, to look now and see that, um, really coronaviruses,
00:11:37.580
I think cost the Hong Kongers, this part of the fight because the rest of the world, you know,
00:11:44.740
the world, if you remember before coronavirus, the world was really focused on what was happening
00:11:56.480
And from the left and the right, it wasn't, it was a, uh, it wasn't a partisan issue.
00:12:01.260
It was everybody cared and it was, it was the one issue that everybody was siding with the
00:12:08.300
And since then, you know, uh, coronavirus and the election and we're here today and, uh,
00:12:15.720
people care more about, um, you know, you said mean things to me rather than the arbitrary
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jailing of, uh, freedom loving people on the front line in the fight against communist China.
00:12:32.080
It's a really bizarre time we live in, but I guess that's why we're here.
00:12:38.220
And I, I could only imagine what it'd be like there now.
00:12:41.060
When I talk about China versus Hong Kong, I'm reminded of another video of yours where
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you're interviewing some young, uh, Chinese nationals.
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I think they're on vacation or they're there for school and that really, that really got
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I had just recently watched a documentary on Maoism and how that all happened in China.
00:13:03.900
And I couldn't help but think that a lot of these people that you spoke to, a lot of
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these kids, they sound a lot like American social justice warriors.
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And I can't help but think or wonder, and what I'm going to ask you is, is China's dictatorship
00:13:17.600
more an influence of the government on its people, or do you think it's possible that
00:13:22.280
they developed a country full of social justice warriors that basically is almost where America
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is now, where they believe these, these facets of their culture so much.
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And they believe in maybe their fake issues, maybe their, their fake, um, virtues that they're
00:13:37.880
believing, believing in that they believed it so much that they decided to vote in the people
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And these are people that don't particularly pay attention to politics.
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They don't care if the government's reading everything they're saying.
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They just want to have TikTok and they want to have a video platform.
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In your opinion, what is it that makes people in China so complicit with their government?
00:14:04.060
Because they must, there must be some degree that they know that the rest of the world
00:14:15.860
And also, you've got to remember, China is 1.4 billion people.
00:14:20.640
Um, the ones that come here, uh, for school or for holiday, they're not the majority.
00:14:27.300
They're in the minority and they're pretty well set up in China.
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And most of them would have, uh, some sort of connection to the communist government,
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um, there, whether they work for them, whether they're just got closed business ties, whatever
00:14:41.880
So I don't think the people that I talk to here are a reflection of the majority in mainland
00:14:49.900
Um, I do think that there's a mix of what you're saying.
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There are some that, there's probably a lot, especially within that class that believe they're
00:15:10.420
Um, so that's their version of what you'd say, like the social justice warriors we have
00:15:16.820
Um, but I think that in China, the difference is, um, and, and what I found is that you can't
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actually have a rational conversation with, especially those groups because they don't
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They've been brainwashed in China, uh, for their entire lives.
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Now, the ones again, that, that we see here, they have pretty comfortable lives.
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Um, they, and then on top of that, they've been fed these different narratives, which are
00:16:00.460
Just ask any of the Uyghurs in China, but the, so they have their, uh, views that, that,
00:16:07.780
that have been built from childhood, from the fact that all their, um, mainstream, all
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their news, all, all their media, all the content that they consume feeds this, this
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So they don't really get to see opposing views.
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And, um, they all have, you know, when I talk to those ones that you're talking about
00:16:31.240
and I asked them a simple question going, okay, which one of the five demands from the
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Hong Kong as a Hong Kong protest movement, do you, are you against, what don't you agree
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And none of them could answer that because they weren't being fed that they were being
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fed one line on in China, which in mainland China, which was that, that Hong Kong protest
00:17:00.680
And the truth is, especially at that time, it had nothing to do with the independence was
00:17:07.220
a very fringe minority that we're asking for independence.
00:17:10.760
The five demands were nothing about independence.
00:17:13.500
In fact, I would say anecdotally from speaking to Hong Kongers on the ground, they
00:17:30.900
They eat Chinese food, but they just had, uh, Western democracy, democratic values, but
00:17:39.680
Now, I think it may have changed since, uh, since then.
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And, and, and you can't blame them because I think a lot of people realize that the only
00:17:47.620
way out of, you know, what's going on there now is through democracy, uh, through independence.
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It's hard to say where it would be without the coronavirus.
00:18:00.780
There is people, um, the Houston Rockets NBA team were getting in a lot of trouble for
00:18:06.260
just basically bowing to them, even though their general manager said free Hong Kong.
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And it's still this whole firestorm that I wish we could, there's topics like that, that
00:18:16.380
But right now it's just completely blown out of the water and, and playing second fiddle.
00:18:21.420
I want to transition to fightthefines.com.au, which is how you've made, um, us, what seems
00:18:31.600
At least you are way more famous in Australia than I am here, for example, or David Menzies
00:18:39.180
And what I want to ask you is what was your most memorable case to date?
00:18:42.780
The one that comes to mind for me is probably the homeless guy, where there's so many, there's
00:18:47.400
so many problems when people run into, in big cities, they run into homelessness and nobody
00:18:52.060
wants to, and there's a strong contingent of people that say, don't put them in, in a
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home, don't put them in prison or anything like that.
00:18:59.420
But in Australia, this homeless guy is living in his car and he's getting fined for that.
00:19:03.520
What's your most memorable fightthefines.com.au case?
00:19:08.720
There's, yeah, it's, there's, there's a bunch of them.
00:19:13.440
They're all, you know, even the one we released a couple of days ago, which was that, you know,
00:19:18.820
that woman that was exercising and, you know, that the police literally grabbing the, the
00:19:26.840
child from her arms, um, and throwing her in the back of a, a divvy van and like a police
00:19:34.000
car and slamming, like violently slamming her in there, you know, for a thousand dollar
00:19:39.520
fine because she was wearing a, a sign that was against the lockdown.
00:19:45.360
But, um, there was a, there was a family, there was a beautiful family that we did a
00:19:51.960
story on that got $10,000 in fines and were fighting their fines.
00:19:56.700
Was it, um, and that fine was because they lived on a border between, uh, city and rural
00:20:06.760
So at the time there was like this fake line that you were supposed, border that you were
00:20:14.560
And if you cross from one side to the other, it was a $5,000 fine and there were two adults
00:20:19.060
and they just went to their closest health food store, which crossed that line because
00:20:23.360
they live on the border and they got $10,000 in fine.
00:20:27.960
And it was just like this beautiful young family trying to, you know, survive in a time
00:20:32.760
where, uh, one parent wasn't able to work and the, you know, where the government stripped
00:20:37.680
them of everything, including their most basic fundamental human rights.
00:20:42.720
Um, and I remember just watching him and they were kind of, you know, they were just, they
00:20:48.680
were just grateful that rebel news was around and able to do something and a step
00:20:53.320
in where no other civil liberties group here in Australia is doing anything about it.
00:21:04.460
And, and I guess for me, the whole fight the fines project that we've done, I'm, I'm really
00:21:12.180
happy because I feel like it was almost the perfect time that I joined rebel news because
00:21:17.280
I got that opportunity that like you said here, it's, it became really popular and it, it,
00:21:21.660
it empowered people to fight back, you know, each fine that we took on each fine.
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Each fine that we're, we're fighting for people just teaches others that you can do it and
00:21:36.140
And just cause a police officer issues you with a fine doesn't make it right.
00:21:41.560
Doesn't mean, uh, you're in the wrong and you're a bad person.
00:21:44.900
Same as, uh, I will open that was, you know, that's what we launched here, uh, during the
00:21:51.640
lockdown and in Victoria, uh, we had the longest and harshest lockdown in the world for months.
00:22:02.280
We were allowed out for one hour a day exercise.
00:22:08.400
And at some point we started the, I will open campaign where anyone who wish was going
00:22:16.940
I was going to open, um, just let us know and we'll report the story.
00:22:21.840
And it created this wave of industries that were opening.
00:22:26.960
And we, we, I had a backlog already of businesses saying, yep, we're going to open on this date.
00:22:31.980
And suddenly the government started opening things up.
00:22:35.620
So I really truly believe that, um, more than even just protests, the way that, uh, rebel news
00:22:43.420
has been, uh, taking on these issues, at least here in Australia has really changed, uh, the
00:22:49.580
conversation and it's moved, it's moved people away from just going on the street and protesting,
00:22:55.560
which is great, but we've seen some of the scenes, you know, my first day at rebel news,
00:22:59.780
I've got tackled to the ground as a journalist went at one of those protests, we're just
00:23:05.620
So there was that kind of heavy handedness at the police where, but when you suddenly
00:23:09.680
had, uh, small businesses rising up saying, no, I'm going to open my doors, find me, find
00:23:17.660
me, I don't care because either I'm going to crash or I'm going to, when you started to
00:23:22.240
have that and you know, it was a domino's effect as soon as one did it and we reported on
00:23:27.680
it and it kind of got, um, a bit of, uh, uh, publicity, the next one did it.
00:23:33.240
And then suddenly all these other ones were calling and doing it and the, the government
00:23:40.740
They weren't able to come in and, uh, do what, uh, they did, what I've seen them doing
00:23:47.460
in Canada to the barbecue guy because it got out of control.
00:23:52.200
And I can understand why the, in Canada, um, your, the, the government, possibly we're
00:23:59.500
looking at what was happening in Canada and they go, we better stop this now at the first
00:24:03.940
guy and make it not worth anyone's while to do it because, um, you see what happens here.
00:24:09.720
As soon as you lose control, as soon as people realize that what's the worst that can happen,
00:24:13.960
I'm going to lose my business anyways, I might as well go out fighting.
00:24:17.980
Um, that's what kind of happens in the government can't control anything and same with the fines
00:24:24.080
when people realize that a fine is just a piece of paper and you can fight it and there's,
00:24:30.720
you know, just keep, keep at it, just do what you believe is right.
00:24:43.900
Avi, when people talk about lockdowns around the world and people I know do it and people
00:24:49.220
online, of course, do it, they point to Victoria as, Hey, this was a harsh lockdown and now the
00:25:02.480
If you, um, if you lock everyone into their homes for 24 hours, seven days a week, guess
00:25:18.480
So the question is not whether locking people down stops a virus from spreading.
00:25:24.420
Obviously, if people are locked down, a virus can't spread.
00:25:27.640
Now, I love when they compare Australia to Canada, to North America, you know, Oh, do you
00:25:37.040
We're an Island and if you control the borders as they did here, um, yes, you can bring the
00:25:44.300
numbers down to the figures that we've got, but I'd argue, is it still worth it after everything
00:25:53.780
And at what cost is what you say, you know, how many businesses shut down in this period,
00:26:00.120
And we haven't even started to feel the pain because even until now, the government is
00:26:07.740
When that money runs out, when that all dries up, mate, I don't think people realize what
00:26:19.680
For a virus that, yeah, it's not good, but it's certainly not what we originally thought
00:26:27.220
it was, you know, most of my family got coronavirus overseas.
00:26:33.580
Now, in the first, in the beginning when they told us, uh, you know, uh, I had two family
00:26:39.740
members that had died and they told us at the time from coronavirus or we, you know,
00:26:44.580
later we don't know if it's from with, but they were older, but the rest of my family,
00:26:53.240
There was a wedding in my family where my whole family got coronavirus, everyone at the
00:26:56.840
wedding in Miami and only two felt sick, let alone anything more than that.
00:27:02.700
So if you think that it's worth shutting down the entire economy for that, well, I think,
00:27:12.320
uh, talk to me in a couple of years when Australia starts to really feel the pain of what we went
00:27:17.880
through in the state of Victoria, when it starts to feel the pain, all the job losses, all the
00:27:22.260
business closures, everything that, that came at that cost and talk to me.
00:27:28.040
But even if you think it's worth it, it's, you can't compare it to North America because, uh,
00:27:35.580
you know, you don't have the ability to control the borders like we do here.
00:27:41.280
It's all the people that are advocating, um, this kind of, uh, authoritarian response
00:27:48.360
to coronavirus, you know, as Australians, I can't come and visit you.
00:27:52.580
Australia is the only place in the world at the moment that your passport doesn't mean
00:27:58.160
There are Australians stranded all around the world with your passport.
00:28:04.200
In fact, you can't even go between state to state.
00:28:07.560
So as a Victorian, I can't just go to New South Wales, which is, you know, a thousand
00:28:16.680
So if you think it's worth living like that and you consider that, um, uh, lockdown working,
00:28:25.960
like I said, in the beginning, if you lock everyone in their home for 24 hours a day, seven
00:28:32.860
Why don't we start boarding people, you know, locking people up with wooden, uh, slap, you
00:28:38.040
know, nail them into their own homes and we'll never have disease.
00:28:43.880
I think you would find people who would be for that here in the Western world.
00:28:48.040
I think people, I think it's gotten so far where the hysteria has gone so wild.
00:28:53.340
I think people would actually support, I mean, they're instituting jail penalties now
00:28:57.940
here, uh, upwards of one year in prison now is what they're suggesting.
00:29:06.320
You are free to, you want to do a shirtless, you want to swear and smoke.
00:29:12.240
Um, Jim Jeffries is something that comes up a lot.
00:29:15.620
Um, especially when I put on Twitter, what's your question for, first of all, I want to
00:29:19.480
say, um, when I put up your questions for Avi on Twitter, you've got a low bar of trolls.
00:29:26.440
And these are people that are creating, uh, it's pretty obvious when they copy and paste
00:29:32.180
the same messages, but people are creating multiple accounts just to say, ask Avi why
00:29:43.420
But they want to know what happened with Jim Jeffries and what's happened since.
00:29:47.480
So for the people who don't know, we'll show a bit of the Jim Jeffries video that I watched
00:29:52.220
when I was, uh, just a viewer of yours and I liked Jim Jeffries before that.
00:29:57.200
He kind of turned into a rambling drunk, in my opinion, yelling at people on Bill Maher
00:30:01.940
Tell us exactly what happened there, what the story was and what's happened since.
00:30:05.620
So with Jim Jeffries, listen, I knew the moment I got a call from his producer saying, um, he,
00:30:14.640
he wanted to invite me onto his show, uh, to talk about, I think immigration, right wing
00:30:21.660
And I knew immediately because I remember what he did to, um, Jordan Peterson and I knew
00:30:30.740
I said, uh, don't put me on there with actual neo-Nazis.
00:30:34.540
I don't want to be, you know, I don't want you to put me alongside him to make it as if
00:30:39.200
I support their views or they are me and we, and I am them.
00:30:44.280
And the second one, which was also a very reasonable request was that they don't, um,
00:30:52.160
they don't cut my answers from one question to another question.
00:30:56.560
Just, you know, if you want to, I don't care if you don't include the whole interview,
00:31:00.280
we sat there for, I don't know, an hour or whatever, but just put the answers to the
00:31:07.120
Isn't it sad that you have to ask that they put the stuff in context?
00:31:11.060
And the reason why I did that is because like I said, I'd gone and looked and I'd seen Jordan,
00:31:15.520
what they did to Jordan Peterson and I could see the technique and it was obvious that they
00:31:24.860
They said, of course, of course we would never do.
00:31:28.240
I remember him saying to me, oh no, that's, we don't do.
00:31:33.200
The second red flag was the moment they, they have a word for it.
00:31:37.700
I can't remember it now, but a word for the technique of cutting up the answers.
00:31:43.080
And I thought that's so funny because only somebody who, who actually operates in that
00:31:49.340
space where they do that kind of stuff, um, would, would have a, a, a term for it.
00:31:56.060
Anyways, um, I, they flew me to Singapore for this, uh, you know, accommodation, hotel, uh,
00:32:05.060
And, you know, it was like a, I thought, great three day holiday.
00:32:16.400
Yeah, but he's based in the U S he's based in the U S.
00:32:22.440
I think he was doing a show in Singapore at the time.
00:32:25.740
Cause at the time they wanted me at the, when they called me, they were in Australia, but
00:32:38.080
I was going to have a few day holiday and I just thought I was, you know, an idiot.
00:32:43.860
And I just took two mobile phones at the time and I walk in there and it's at some
00:32:51.120
bar and I just look, these people are so self-absorbed that they didn't realize that
00:32:58.640
There's, I don't know, 20 people in there at least doing this production and I'm sitting
00:33:03.640
there and there was like a couch in front of the chairs that we were sitting for the
00:33:09.160
interview and I'm propping up the phones and like sitting them up properly to film my
00:33:17.200
own version of what happened because, and I went in there prepared in my head.
00:33:21.120
And I go, I started the film from the moment I walked in and I said, because if they catch
00:33:27.420
me doing it and they tell me I can't do it, I'll say, why?
00:33:31.060
We had an agreement and I just want to make sure I'm covered.
00:33:36.880
I'm going to show the world what they tried to do and how I, how I fought back.
00:33:45.300
You know, and, and the thing, the thing is they waited months that nothing came out.
00:33:52.940
It was actually the Jewish holiday of Purim where I was at an event, um, sitting at a table
00:34:00.640
with my rabbi and some Jewish, some, you know, community member walks in and Purim for those
00:34:06.200
if you don't know is one where you have a few drinks and it's a, it's a fun Jewish holiday.
00:34:11.660
It's one of the fun ones where you, where you get to drink a lot.
00:34:19.300
You don't know the difference between good and evil.
00:34:27.900
What were they trying to position to, to quote, to humiliate you with?
00:34:36.820
Yeah, they were just trying to make it out that, you know, the right, uh, some, and that
00:34:43.040
I specifically as somebody who's a prominent right wing online figure is just a neo-Nazi
00:34:57.280
And it was just funny that, you know, I left there and months later on that Purim when some
00:35:04.080
rabbi comes in and, uh, some communion where he goes, Oh, did you see your Jim Jefferies?
00:35:10.280
And I'm sitting there going, and I just, I turned to the guy, I go, wait 24 hours, just
00:35:16.860
Cause I knew I had the, the, the things there and I went back and I watched it and it was,
00:35:22.240
it was probably, it was probably, I guess worse than I thought because I kind of started
00:35:31.360
to believe him that they weren't going to, I guess they convinced me and I, you know,
00:35:36.580
I had my insurance policy, but it was worse because it was, it was right after Christchurch,
00:35:44.480
And they waited for that to, to off the back of that, to run this segment that they filmed
00:35:52.000
months ago to connect me to it, to connect me to the, to, to the terrorist, to the scumbag
00:36:01.900
And I just sat there going, Oh, you know, it was, and as soon as I put it out, you know,
00:36:08.680
the rest is history that it was, you know, even till today I see he's blocked me on and
00:36:16.320
Comedy Central blocked me from a lot of their things.
00:36:19.700
But, um, even till today, I still see every time Jim Jefferies does it, has anything, I
00:36:28.940
Um, and cause I'm always tagged in a lot of them where people are still having goes at
00:36:40.660
And then like, like I mentioned earlier, the last thing I remember seeing of Jim Jefferies
00:36:44.820
is him on Bill Maher, just clearly drunk, just yelling at any, he's just flipping off people
00:36:51.740
And like, I get that you're a comedian, but you're on a political show, at least have some
00:36:57.320
And it's just F you if you don't believe, uh, agree with me now.
00:37:01.600
So there's been no contact with him or his team since then.
00:37:09.240
It was because the, the, the clock, there was a, I can't remember how long we had, we,
00:37:21.540
But, um, the problem was the moment we did that Viacom, which is the company that it owns
00:37:27.820
it on, came down with, uh, a whole team of lawyers and scared the hell out of, uh, my
00:37:36.760
little lawyer that was going to represent me at the time.
00:37:41.540
So we just ended up dropping it because there was just no, no real, no viable way to take
00:37:49.280
Uh, you know, it was quite obvious anybody watched his segment, watched then the full
00:37:55.280
video or, or me pointing out that video where I point out how they, you know, maliciously
00:38:10.640
People said, oh, people afterwards said, oh, well, didn't you know that was going to
00:38:17.440
Actually, if I could go back in time, I would do it all again because that was such an important,
00:38:23.880
um, moment where people realize that this is not just a conspiracy that the right wing
00:38:32.960
And it happens so brazenly and so disgracefully.
00:38:38.460
The only thing I regret really is not recording more of the interactions beforehand.
00:38:46.380
Me with the, uh, producers and all that, you know, if it was me today, that was me a couple
00:38:55.000
I didn't have the full, uh, support that we have at rebel and the full team behind me
00:39:02.920
It was literally me and whatever I did and whatever I thought of Tommy Robinson at the
00:39:08.820
time was the one who told me to go and film it.
00:39:12.160
It was his idea when I told him, although I already had it because I thought it's, um,
00:39:20.680
I'd seen, uh, cause I was working with Tommy and he'd just done a bunch of those kinds
00:39:26.980
So as soon as I said, I thought it's, it's a great opportunity, but Tommy was the first
00:39:32.800
But no one at the time and my own experience didn't teach me to record every conversation
00:39:38.380
that I had with a producer because that would be lovely.
00:39:41.700
You know, I would love to be able to show the world, that conversation with the producer
00:39:48.020
where I made those two, those two conditions and where he just straight up lied.
00:39:55.860
But so where we are today with it, um, I did follow him.
00:40:04.140
Um, you know, I'm not someone that gives up easily.
00:40:09.620
And they, oh yeah, they faked the entrance or the exit.
00:40:16.600
So first we went to, we went to, yeah, we went to America to, to confront him and, uh,
00:40:23.980
Um, and so I was arrested and deported in, in LA.
00:40:28.800
Um, and, and then, so then I figured, all right, I need to find him at a show where
00:40:37.240
So I went to Israel and yeah, they did a whole, uh, they did a whole, uh, decoy when
00:40:47.360
he came, like it was so funny and you know what, it's kind of a game.
00:40:52.620
And then at some point in my life, we will talk again and, uh, everyone knows me.
00:41:01.180
I am not in no way violent and never threatening violence.
00:41:05.940
I just want to see him face to face and for him to acknowledge not that he was wrong, that
00:41:18.880
I want that little, that little cheap shot he took because now it's already the world
00:41:24.160
is, and it's, you know, people, I think a lot of people learn to listen.
00:41:27.500
I think a lot of people, I've gotten a lot of messages, messages over the years of people
00:41:31.980
that are inspired by what I did that day as in when they go to interviews.
00:41:39.540
I often see people, um, in the conservative movement who are saying, oh, I've been invited
00:41:47.160
And always the comments at the bottom say, do another, your mini, do another, your mini.
00:41:51.840
So I'm, I'm really happy that it's, uh, that I've kind of passed that on, which again, I
00:41:59.340
got, like I said before, I got it, I got it from Tommy Robinson from the fact that, uh,
00:42:04.560
you know, people, when, when Trump says the fake news, you know, put words into your mouth
00:42:10.480
or cut things up maliciously, you know, if you're a Trump supporter or if you, whoever
00:42:16.120
it is, if you're a Tommy Robinson supporter, then you'll just believe him.
00:42:20.460
Um, but if you don't like Trump, then it's easy to dismiss what he's saying or whoever
00:42:25.660
It's easy to say, ah, he's just saying that because that made him look bad.
00:42:29.040
Um, but you can't, with my Jim Jeffries one, and I saw it also people from across the
00:42:35.660
aisle, I've seen people who are leftists who don't like me, who said Jim Jeffries is
00:42:43.820
an a-hole for, for, for what happened that day.
00:42:47.540
Um, which is important because I think this is not a right or left-wing thing.
00:42:51.160
I think, um, I think everyone should have the right to freedom of speech, but I also think
00:42:56.360
that, um, any big, uh, uh, media company who, who engages in that kind of practice, uh,
00:43:04.840
to one, just make their narrative to suit their narrative or two, to try demonize somebody
00:43:12.920
with an opposing view, which is exactly what they tried to do with me.
00:43:16.620
And it wasn't, I don't think it was targeted only at me.
00:43:22.420
Well, look, here's Avi Yamini, who's pretty, who's not, you know, they, who, they'll call
00:43:28.740
it fringe, but he's not the, uh, you know, skinhead neo-Nazis.
00:43:35.340
The, uh, they're, they're in sheep's clothing everywhere.
00:43:38.160
And the first, um, ones that just come off the top of my head, if people want to look
00:43:42.060
them up, there's Tommy Robinson with Al Jazeera, there's Tommy Robinson with BBC, and there's
00:43:48.100
So the examples are out there and you should record your own side of the interview every
00:43:56.780
Any, uh, you know, the lesson is record everything better to have it than not to have it record
00:44:03.780
When you're, when you're talking to people that, um, you disagree with, and I, I encourage
00:44:14.260
I don't think we should, I don't think you need to watch them.
00:44:17.400
I'm not telling, you know, I, I watch them because I want to hear what the lies is being
00:44:23.780
But I think, um, if I get invited to an interview, I'll do it.
00:44:28.580
But then I will, uh, ensure that I have that insurance policy that if they take me out of
00:44:36.720
context or, um, in any way manipulate what I'm saying, I'm going to be able to show the
00:44:43.120
world and not like that, that episode of Jim Jefferies as big and powerful as Comedy Central
00:45:08.600
Joanne Doe says, how much, uh, do you expect vaccine passports in Australia?
00:45:15.620
I reckon, um, so it's interesting because they're going to, they, you know, they make a point
00:45:24.140
They can't make, they can't enforce, enforce vaccines onto a population because of, um, our
00:45:32.440
legislation, but in reality, uh, they can, we have here, no jab, no play, no jab, uh, no
00:45:41.720
pay, which is to parents who don't vaccinate their children with kids.
00:45:45.640
Essentially you have to homeschool them and you don't get access to, uh, welfare and things
00:45:54.780
I think, uh, coronavirus has actually, uh, made, has created anti-vaxxers really, you
00:46:01.940
know, typically when we thought of anti-vaxxers, we thought of crazy fringe, uh, dwellers that
00:46:13.060
It's, you know, not something I've ever thought twice about, but no, I do not want to vaccinate
00:46:17.120
my kids with this COVID vaccine because I just, I'm suspicious.
00:46:22.680
I don't, it's not necessarily that I think that they're inserting a chip to control our
00:46:30.880
And I just don't think putting it into my child's body who, even if they get coronavirus
00:46:41.640
Um, having said that, yes, I do believe that they're going to make a mandatory to have a
00:46:50.840
And G General, I have to, we have to stop the questions at some point.
00:46:58.800
At G Generals 5 says, do you have a de-platforming plan in case you were, he said, inevitably de-platformed?
00:47:10.080
I've lost five pages on Facebook, uh, collectively over a million followers.
00:47:15.300
And for Australia, if you think about Australia, of a population of under 30 million, um, it
00:47:20.080
was probably the biggest, uh, conservative, um, personality on, on that platform.
00:47:28.960
And what I say to people is, you know, Parler's just gone down, uh, Parler, I was loving it.
00:47:34.000
I had, I think I was getting close to 500,000 subscribers, followers on Parler.
00:47:39.580
You got to roll with the punches at the end of the day.
00:47:42.040
I'm actually, I'm more hopeful now than I have ever been because until now it has always
00:47:47.320
been the, you know, the fringes that have been, um, de-platformed.
00:47:51.720
And then the rest of the conservative movement have kind of just ignored it because they're
00:47:57.440
like, well, they're not me and I'm not a Tommy Robinson.
00:48:05.880
And now all conservatives feel like, and the truth is they are at risk of censorship of losing
00:48:16.600
You know, a lot of, now every conservative can almost say that without a doubt that one
00:48:23.680
of their posts have been removed from social media.
00:48:28.880
So I think now, maybe in the short term, it's going to be a bit of pain, but in the long term,
00:48:40.580
All of Trump supporters around the world, we're talking about million, hundreds of millions.
00:48:49.120
They need a place to be able to, um, talk freely on the internet and the internet's more
00:49:01.760
And I, I believe that my plan today is finally, I feel like the problem is not just mine.
00:49:09.740
It's ours and collectively we've got people as powerful as Trump and who will fight to have
00:49:17.720
the means, the ability to fight, whether it's within government and also just financially.
00:49:23.440
There are, there are real conservative bodies that will, uh, ensure that there will be platforms
00:49:30.520
And we just need to make sure to support them and be there when they're ready.
00:49:34.660
And that's where I'll be and hope to see you all there.
00:49:41.800
Let's get, um, Presley seven, seven, seven, seven, seven says Australian or Canadian PM.
00:49:57.160
Um, as much as I, it's probably not a fair comparison.
00:50:04.780
Um, I think, I think, uh, ScoMo's he's, he's, he's a bit weak, a bit gutless, but he's still
00:50:17.520
I reckon, I reckon a fairer comparison would be Trudeau and Xi Jinping.
00:50:21.940
This is where we play the Simpsons clip of the Australian prime minister sitting in his
00:50:28.640
Everything I know about Australia is from the Simpsons.
00:50:45.640
There was one question on Twitter that said he didn't want to pin us against each other
00:51:01.040
They couldn't come up with a better name than that.
00:51:04.460
Um, the, I, as my hair has grown through the lockdown and I refuse to cut it, um, I've
00:51:13.620
So it's been this brand, but different, different style stuff every time because it, as, as your
00:51:20.460
hair grows, your hair reacts differently to it.
00:51:23.380
I can't believe I'm talking about hair products.
00:51:25.720
We're going to listen to a hair product segment, Avi, all right?
00:51:28.280
We'll clip this for like Instagram or something and we'll give you your hair plug and hopefully
00:51:41.820
You've taken up six, I think six hours now we've been talking.
00:51:46.300
Uh, thank you for, uh, in all seriousness, thank you for being the first guest on my paywall
00:51:50.940
I've been watching you, uh, for years now before I worked here, before you worked here,
00:52:16.320
Andrew says if you want to see the full uncut version, go to rebelnewsplus.com and sign up
00:52:21.280
today so you can see the entire episode where we talk about topics we can't show you on YouTube.