Critics take to Twitter to shout “Saturday Night Live” Michael Che for a joke they believe is anti-Semitic.
“Israel reports that they vaccinated half of their population. I think it’s the Jewish half, ”the Weekend Update correspondent said Sunday morning.
According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the vast majority of the Israeli population – 74 percent – is Jewish.
The vaccination rate of Israeli Arabs is much lower than that of Jews in the country, due in part to mistrust of the government in the Arab community, according to a January article in The Christian Science Monitor.
Sunday afternoon, the topic was trending, and many accused Che and NBC of bias, and others came to his defense.
“Not surprising for SNL, as they have a long track record of anti-Semitism,” Posted former MP Dov Hikind.
“But Michael Che or anyone else who wrote that ‘joke’ obviously doesn’t know either that Israel has Arab citizens who have been given the vaccine by the same qualifications as Jews!” Said the Brooklyn Democrat.
Another critic tweeted, “43% of Israel’s Arab citizens have been vaccinated – and that large number would be even higher if it weren’t for the kind of hateful propaganda spread by Michael Che.”
Others defended the fake news bit, claiming that Che was making an anti-apartheid statement.
Palestinian leaders have accused Israel of racism in connection with the introduction of vaccines.
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 conscientious Jewish woman, I hate this medical apartheid, ”says one woman tweeted
“All the criticism from Michael Che seems to ignore the fact that the people of the West Bank and Gaza have received almost no vaccinations,” another supporter wrote
A week after SNL ignored the COVID-19 death scandal at Gov. Cuomo’s nursing home, the variety show took off its gloves and cast Pete Davidson as the scandal that entangled the Democrat to start Saturday night’s episode.