With a reputation for lampooning politicians and public figures, Saturday Night Live remains a must-watch show for millions of Americans.
But there are limits. In stoking hatred of Israel by feeding on false perceptions that the Jewish state has unfairly procured millions of coronavirus vaccines while many other countries and populations have not, SNL host Michael Che effectively perpetuated a modern-day blood libel on the latest edition of the show that aired on 20 February.
This is outrageous, @NBCSNL.
Promoting antisemitic myths isn't remotely funny.
Jewish, Muslim and Christian residents of Israel alike are eligible for vaccination, and over half a million Arab citizens of Israel have received at least one dose.
Shameful.pic.twitter.com/36RFcQTCjq
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 21, 2021
(clip via Israellycool)
Addressing the audience, Che commented that, “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population,” before smugly adding, “And I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half.”
Coming on the backdrop of the perception that Israel somehow “jumped the queue” to receive the Pfizer vaccine, and coupled with the widely disseminated falsehood that Israel has denied Palestinians access to inoculations, the jibe didn’t just sting: it contributed directly to the antisemitic narrative.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Record of Offensive ‘Humor’
In 2018, one commentator wrote of Che: “He goes for the easy laugh he knows he can get by simply repeating [a] slur.” This pattern of taking cheap shots was repeated last May when Che made another poorly thought-out joke — that Miss Israel had won a “Miss Hitler beauty pageant.”
Remember this from Michael Che? Seems to be a pattern. https://t.co/LYDxvyXTui
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) February 21, 2021
Che has been dogged in recent years by repeated claims that he has employed transphobic language. In turn, he has used his Instagram account, which has over 400,000 followers, to attack the author of an article that criticized comedians for making disparaging comments against members of the LGBT community. His rant included curses and ad hominems, in a clear attempt to bully the writer.
Ignorance of Israel’s Vaccination Program
In reality, Israel’s vaccination program is open to all of its citizens, Arabs included. As of publication of this article, over half a million Arabs in Israel have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. But those facts remain unknown to many observers because much of the media chooses to paint Israel as “racist.”
Predictably, numerous social media posts have revealed mass anti-Israel bigotry rooted in ignorance. In fact, all of Israel’s citizens are equally eligible for coronavirus vaccinations, including Arabs in Israel. By contrast, the majority of Palestinians are governed by the Palestinian Authority, which has its own health system.
Why can't vaccines enter Gaza without any delay?
Israel inspects everything that enters Gaza to ensure that weaponry and military equipment do not fall into the hands of Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip.
— (((Emanuel Miller))) (@emanumiller) February 21, 2021
Israel has zero interest in depriving the Palestinians of vaccinations: should a new mutation develop in the West Bank or even the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Israelis would almost certainly be infected.
Unfortunately, we’ve been here before. From the “massacre in Jenin” to the “massacre on the Mavi Marmara” to the “massacre on the Gaza border”, once adopted by the media, the over-simplified and decontextualized narrative that Israel is wronging the Palestinians (or in the case of the Mavi Marmara, their gun-toting and knife-wielding Islamist supporters) has a significant influence on public opinion.
Even well after being debunked, these narratives continue to rear their ugly heads from time to time. The anti-Israel Palestinian vaccination lie must not be allowed to similarly persist.
While Che and the SNL team may regard his remark as harmless, the end result is likely to be increased vitriol directed against Israel and Jews.
And that’s not a laughing matter at all.
The American Jewish Committee has put out a petition in order to make clear to NBC and Saturday Night Live that antisemitism is simply unacceptable in any form. HonestReporting is happy to support this initiative and encourages you to make your voice heard here.
