“Saturday Night Live” and star Michael Che are under fire from criticism for a joke they claim to be anti-Semitic.
“Israel is reporting that it vaccinated half of its population. I’ll guess it’s the Jewish half, ”said the Weekend Update correspondent on Sunday morning.
The vast majority of Israel’s population – 74 percent – is Jewish, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
Vaccination rates for Israeli Arabs are much lower than for Jews in the country, partly due to the government’s distrust of the Arab community, according to a January article in The Christian Science Monitor.
On Sunday afternoon, the subject was on the rise, with many accusing Che and NBC of bias, and others coming to their defense.
“It is not surprising coming from the SNL, as they have a long history of anti-Semitism,” posted former state deputy Dov Hikind.
“But Michael Che or whoever wrote this ‘joke’ obviously also ignores the fact that Israel has Arab citizens who received the vaccine according to the same qualifications as the Jews!” Said the Brooklyn Democrat.
Another critic tweeted: “43% of Israel’s Arab citizens were vaccinated – and that already large number would be even greater if the type of hateful propaganda spread by Michael Che was not around.”
Others defended the false news, claiming that Che was making a statement about Israel not extending the program to the West Bank and Gaza. He is vaccinating Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Palestinian leaders accused Israel of racism in connection with the launch of the vaccine.
“Leave Michael Che alone. Israel is not vaccinating the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – all of which are ultimately under Israeli control. As a Jewish woman of conscience, I find this medical apartheid terrible, ”a woman tweeted.
Meanwhile, a week after “SNL” ignored Governor Cuomo’s death scandal over COVID-19 nursing home, the variety show took off its gloves, classifying Pete Davidson as the scandal that involved the Democrat to start the episode Saturday night.