“Saturday Night Live” and star Michael Che are under fire for a joke they claim to be anti-Semitic.
“Israel reports having vaccinated half of its population. I’m going to guess that it’s half Jewish, ”the Weekend Update correspondent cracked Sunday morning.
The vast majority of Israel’s population – 74% – is Jewish, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
Vaccination rates for Arab Israelis are much lower than for Jews in the country, in part due to mistrust of government in the Arab community, according to a January article in The Christian Science Monitor.
On Sunday afternoon, the subject was all the rage, with many accusing Che and NBC of bias, with others coming to his defense.
“No wonder on the part of SNL, because they have a long experience of anti-Semitism,” posted former member of the State Assembly Dov Hikind.
“But Michael Che or whoever wrote this” joke “also ignores the fact that Israel has Arab citizens who received the vaccine on the same qualifications as the Jews! Said the Brooklyn Democrat.
Another critic tweeted: “43% of Arab citizens of Israel have been vaccinated – and this already high number would be even higher if the kind of hate propaganda spread by Michael Che did not exist. ”
Others defended the false information, claiming that Che was making a statement that Israel was not extending the program to the West Bank and Gaza. He is vaccinating Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
The Palestinian leadership accused Israel of racism in connection with the deployment of the vaccine.
“Leave Michael Che alone. Israel does not immunize the millions of Palestiniansin the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, all of whom are under Israeli control. As a Jewish woman of conscience, I find this medical apartheid-appalling, ”a woman tweeted.
Meanwhile, a week after “SNL” ignored Governor Cuomo’s COVID-19 nursing home death scandal, the variety show took off the gloves, presenting Pete Davidson as the scandal leading the Democrat to start the Saturday night episode.
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