A quick-fire joke about Israel’s vaccination rollout on US comedy show Saturday Night Live has caused uproar and demands for an apology.
In a parody of a news report, one of its actors joked that Israel – which has had the quickest rollout of any nation – has only been vaccinating its Jewish citizens.
“Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half,” cracked “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che to a chuckling audience.
The single-line joke has been met with condemnation from Jewish groups that say it is anti-Semitic and referred to an ancient trope that Jews are responsible for plagues.
The American Jewish Committee has launched a petition and is demanding “Saturday Night Live” apologize for a joke that suggested Israel is only vaccinating Jewish citizens.
“On February 20, during NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Michael Che accused Israel of vaccinating only its Jewish citizens,” the citizens said in a statement. “The claim is categorically false: every Israeli, regardless of religion or ethnicity, is eligible for the COVID vaccine, and more than two thirds of Israel’s Arab citizens over 60 have already been vaccinated.”
“Saturday Night Live’s “joke” isn’t just untrue—it’s dangerous, a modern twist on a classic antisemitic trope that has inspired the mass murder of countless Jews throughout the centuries. In the Middle Ages, thousands of Jews were burnt at the stake after being blamed for the Black Death and accused of protecting only themselves. In the 20th century, the Nazis accused Jews of spreading disease and seized on that falsehood to justify imprisoning Jews in ghettos and carrying out the mass murder of European Jewry.”
“Words have consequences, and Jews are at risk when a major American TV company joins with those who claim Israel is favoring only a portion of its citizens in its admirable efforts, praised by Dr. Anthony Fauci and others, to vaccinate all of its residents.”
It's all fun and games until you start promoting antisemitic myths, @NBCSNL.
Every Israeli citizen—Jewish and Arab, Muslim, Christian, of any or no faith—is eligible to be vaccinated; 2/3 of Israel's Arab citizens over 60 already have been.
Apologize.pic.twitter.com/EMA9pK1kC0
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) February 21, 2021
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23 Responses
Meh, it was a blip. There are plenty of times people make legitimately anti-semitic comments and crying “anit-semite!” for any small thing really cheapens it.
Also to my understanding, it’s a segment that plays sometime a little more to off color jokes which is, in a way, a relief in this climate.
What else would you expect from the filthy criminal America hating anti-Semitic leftist swine’s of mainstream media, they are the new Nazi’s of this generation.
They must be treated exactly as you would rabies infected sewer rats, they are much more dangerous
The left is home to most antisemitism.
SNL always has been politically incorrect and sometimes to the point of making me cringe. They have uniformly mocked ALL religious groups, especially the Christian right’s embracing the Trump administration. Much of what they present is patently in bad taste. The vaccination joke was probably with reference to recent media reports about the low rates of vaccination for Palestinians in the west bank and Gaza where EY has no legal obligations to provide medical care (but often does so). I found the opening skit on Saturday night making a joke about Cuomo’s failure to provide timely data on Covid deaths in nursing homes much more offensive to the families of those who were niftar than the lame joke on vaccinations.
“In the run-up to Super Bowl LI in 2017, Che called Boston “the most racist city” he has visited and refused to apologize. Che is also known for feuding with critics and fellow comedians, including Steven Hyden and Jack Allison”
This affirmative action hiree has a history of being trouble maker but because of the color of his skin, they can’t touch him.
Why just demand an apology he should be fired or does that new culture not apply to Anti Semitism?
This is pretty amazing.
Just imagine a so-called comedian making the parallel comment about, say, South Africa: “South Africa has already vaccinated half its population. I’m guessing it’s the black half.”
There would be justified outrage, and the guy would be deservedly out of a job.
Nu nu. Doesn’t bother me too much. Playing on people’s stereotypes is unfortunately regular for humour.
When it comes to crying ‘anti-Semitism’, choose your battles.
Shame on SNL and NBC! Anti-Semitism is alive and well in mainstream America. If you look at the map of Israel, the Golan Heights is not shaded in as part of Israel! This goes along with the new administration’s thinking. When asked about the Golan Heights, Secretary of State Blinken stopped short of endorsing the Trump administration’s recognition of the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel, instead noting that the territory was important for Israel’s security.
Shame on SNL and NBC! Anti-Semitism is alive and well in mainstream media. If you look at the map of Israel, the Golan Heights is not shaded in as part of Israel! This goes along with the new administration’s thinking. When asked about the Golan Heights, Secretary of State Blinken stopped short of endorsing the Trump administration’s recognition of the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel, instead noting that the territory was important for Israel’s security.
Half the cast at SNL is black. I’m going to guess the black guy said the anti-Semitic joke.
Takeh scary
Well, hopefully Liberal Jews with start to wake up and understand that the Liberals they idolize believe in equality for everybody, except for those that they hate – privileged white people! And in their eyes, Jews fall under that category.
i wonder why there is a laugh behind the scene? The jokes are so flat comedian has to hint on where to laugh?
I just googled: ‘ “vaccine blood libel” anti-israel ‘
So dark…
though it began by Arab racism…it gained steam.
I would have understood the joke as referring to a country’s record of treating its citizens differently according to their ethnicity. Because neither that country nor its leadership is “The Jewish People,” I wouldn’t have made any connection to anti-semitism. Indeed, the inference that many of the above comments make from (1) the fact that SNL mocked a country’s arguably racist history to (2) the suggestion that SNL’s joke is directed at Jewish people seems to depend on the blatantly racist and anti-semitic belief that the country called Israel represents the Jewish people. It’s like complaining that criticism against South Africa’s government during the years of apartheid is an attack against “white people.”
Actually it was funny,HOWEVER, in the environment that we live in today, if you would change the word Jew to any other minority group you would be canceled- loss of job with the prospect of finding another one extremely slim.
For 4 years we’ve heard the usual suspects rationalize what the former occupant of the WH meant every other time he opened his mouth or tweeted some nareshkeit. When confronted with his retweeting of blatantly ant-semitic or racist memes, he claimed that he “didn’t know”, “didn’t see” , what just retweeting what “they were saying”. SNL comedy has gone downhill in the past few years but nothing they have or will say compares to what we’ve lived through the past 4 years.
The petition should be for his firing- without benefits. Anything less is insufficient. Imagine something like that was said about the black community!
Rachama Litzlan, how do so many Yidden know about this show?? and why is it on this Yiddishe site?
To oyyoyyoy
Did you bother listening to what this anti semite said. There are many anti Israel groups who have been falsely saying what this guy said for since the vaccine came out. He should be fired. Its inexcusable.
“If you look at the map of Israel, the Golan Heights is not shaded in as part of Israel! ”
In fact, the Golan Heights is in fact not part of Israel. It was never properly annexed.
‘The Shady Charedi,’ What “people’s stereotypes “? You mean reviving black deaths tropes? And is that, somehow trivial?