Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu countered what he called a “outrageous” joke recently made by “Saturday Night Live” star Michael Che, which many considered “anti-Semitic”.
Netanyahu told Fox & Friends on Thursday that he thought the joke related to the launch of the coronavirus vaccine in Israel was “so false”.
“Israel is reporting that it has vaccinated half of its population. I imagine it is half Jewish,” Che said last month in the “Weekend Update” segment of the program.
“This is outrageous,” said Netanyahu on Thursday, speaking of Jerusalem.
“In fact, I brought vaccines and went especially to the Arab communities, the Arab citizens of Israel and vaccinated as much as we could,” he added. “I must have already gone to half a dozen Arab communities, talked to the mayors there, brought the leaders, brought the doctors there, Arab doctors, this is simply outrageous.”
The joke aroused the ire of viewers and pro-Israeli groups like the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which created a petition for NBC “to withdraw its outrageous complaint and apologize immediately”.
A week later, without comment from the Peacock Network, AJC CEO David Harris criticized NBC for not addressing the controversy on Saturday night’s broadcast.
“There was a chance @NBC to apologize last night on @NBCSNL for last week’s anti-Semitic segment,” Harris wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “It didn’t happen. Corporate arrogance? Corporate irresponsibility? Corporate insensitivity? What are the reasons, bad program, NBC! In an era of growing hatred, NBC just added to that.”
AJC had previously criticized the network for spreading “lies” about Israel, playing with “anti-Semitic troops” and fueling “growing anti-Semitism”.
Last Saturday, dozens of people showed up to protest the previous week’s joke about vaccines in Israel, the New York Post reported.
NBC STUDIO PROTEST AGAINST ‘SNL’ STAR MICHAEL CHE THE PLANNED ‘ANTI-SEMITIC’ JOKE
The crowd shouted “Shame on NBC!” and “Anti-Semitism is not funny!” outside the NBC West 49th Street entrance.
Fox News contacted NBC several times with a request for comment. Last week, they told Fox News that the network had no comment. An NBC spokesman also did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment on Thursday.
The Israeli Prime Minister also discussed the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country with “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, saying the country is “running for collective immunity”. Netanyahu added that Israel is “setting the standard for the world” with regard to the country’s vaccination effort.
“We are sharing our experiences with the USA [and] with all other countries, “said Netanyahu.
Haaretz reported on Thursday, citing data released by the Ministry of Health, that more than half of Israel’s population was inoculated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and more than a third of the population is receiving the second dose.
The media noted that, according to the latest figures on Wednesday, Israel inoculated almost 4.9 million people, which is 53.2 percent of the population, adding that more than 3.5 million people, which is 39 percent of the population, received the second dose of the vaccine.
More than 90 percent of Israelis aged 50 and over have already received at least the first dose, with the highest rate of inoculation among the 70-79 age group.
Netanyahu told Fox & Friends on Thursday that “90% of Israelis, all over the age of 16, have been beaten at least once, many of them twice and the rest are recovering.”
He then explained how Israel was able to do this, citing “quick decisions”, a “tremendous distribution system” and “citizen mobilization”, which he argued “understand that his health and lives depended on it”.
“We are very proud of that,” said Netanyahu.
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“Israel used to be known and is known as an initial nation,” he continued. “As of today, it will also be known as the nation of vaccination.”
Netanyahu also noted on Thursday that, to make up for the loss of curriculum during the school year in Israel, another month will be added in the summer “to help close the gaps”.
“Zoom is good, but not so good,” said Netanyahu, explaining that “classroom learning turns out to be very valuable” and “especially important at younger ages”.
Bradford Betz of Fox News contributed to this report.