“Saturday Night Live” and star Michael Che are under fire from critics for a joke they claim was antisemitic.
“Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half,” the Weekend Update correspondent cracked Sunday morning.
The vast majority of Israel’s population — 74 percent — is Jewish, according to the Jewish Virtual Library.
#MichaelChe of @nbcsnl engaging in more antisemitic humor. Stoking hatred against Jews by perpetuating libels is no laughing matter. cc: @StopAntisemites pic.twitter.com/ATvq0zcUzV
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) February 21, 2021
Vaccination rates of Israeli Arabs are much lower than Jews in the country, partially due to distrust of the government in the Arab community, according to a January article in The Christian Science Monitor.
By Sunday afternoon, the topic was trending, with many accusing Che and NBC of bias, and others coming to his defense. “Unsurprising coming from SNL as they have a long record of antisemitism,” posted former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind.
“But Michael Che or whoever wrote that ‘joke’ is obviously also ignorant of fact that Israel has Arab citizens who’ve received the vaccine according to the same qualifications as Jews!,” the Brooklyn Democrat said.
Another critic tweeted: “43% of Israel’s Arab citizens have been vaccinated – and that already large # would be even higher if the kind of hateful propaganda spread by Michael Che weren’t around.”