Michael Che, SNL joke decried as anti-Semitic

Protesters gathered outside NBC Studios in New York City to demand an apology for a “Saturday Night Live” joke suggesting that Israel was only vaccinating Jews, a quip decried as anti-Semitic.
 
The network has been mum in the face of an outcry over the Feb. 20 show in which comedian Michael Che said in a “Weekend Update” segment that Israel had vaccinated half of its population,” then cracked, “I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.”

Former New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind accused NBC of promoting an “anti-Semitic stereotype” at the Saturday night rally across the street from NBC Studios at Rockefeller Plaza.
 
“The message was very, very simple: ‘You know, the only people getting vaccines in Israel are Jews,’ when the truth is that the Arab population of the state of Israel has received the vaccine no different from the rest of the population. That is a fact,” Mr. Hikind said. “To use this language, this behavior is to cause hate all over the world.”
 
The protest, organized by End Jew Hatred, Americans Against Anti-Semitism, Yad Yamin New York and Liberate Art, saw about 120 people wave signs and chant slogans such as “Shame on NBC” and “Anti-Semitism is not funny!”
 
“Instead of just saying, ‘sorry, we weren’t as sensitive as we should have been,’ you don’t hear a sound. You don’t hear a word,” said Mr. Hikind, as shown in a YouTube video posted by Darias News.

NBC has declined to comment publicly on the segment, while the outcry shows no sign of dissipating.
 
The pro-Israel group StandWithUs launched an online letter-writing campaign last week asking NBC to “apologize and disown this dangerous and misleading assertion.”

“This charge is not only false (Israel is vaccinating all citizens), but plays into dangerous blood libel tropes that Jews only care about other Jews,” said End Jew Hatred in a Sunday statement.
 
Karen LichtBraun, leader of Yad Yamin New York, said it was “of the utmost importance that we continue our ‘boots on the ground’ actions.”
 
“Jews must be seen and heard,” she said in a statement. “We must send the message that antisemitism is not acceptable and there will be repercussions to antisemitic actions.”

 

Thank you to all who joined us yesterday calling out Jew Hatred airing on @nbcsnl!
The protest was co-sponsored by End Jew Hatred, @HikindDov, @LanaMelman and @yamin_ny

Sign up for our mailer never to miss a chance to stand up to #EndJewHatred: https://t.co/jauUPZwIjX pic.twitter.com/cJKPMljLOE

— End Jew Hatred (@EndJewHatred) February 28, 2021

 
Mr. Hikind promised to keep the pressure on NBC, saying “we’re not going to stop.”
 
“I’ve got a lot of things planned. This is just like the first inning as far as I’m concerned,” he told the crowd. “Let them just apologize, ‘we made a mistake, we didn’t mean anything,’ and that’s it, it’s over, it’s finished. That’s all we’re looking for.”
 
Israel leads the world in administering the novel coronavirus vaccine to its population, which is about 75% Jewish and 20% Arab, but has come under international pressure to extend its program to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
 
Israeli officials, who have argued that the Oslo accords place the Palestinian Authority in charge of its own health care, announced Sunday that they would administer vaccines to 100,000 Palestinians working in Israel. Those living in East Jerusalem were already eligible for vaccinations.
 
Israel, which had previously pledged to send 5,000 vaccines to the Palestinian Authority, suspended Friday its plan to ship vaccines to its diplomatic allies in Africa, Europe and Central America.
 
• This story was based in part on Associated Press reports.