Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that a recent monologue by Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedian Michael Che, in which he joked that Israel is only providing the COVID-19 vaccine to Jewish people, was “outrageous.”
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“That’s outrageous,” Netanyahu told “Fox & Friends.” “That’s so outrageous. In fact, I brought vaccines and went especially to the Arab communities, the Arab citizens of Israel and vaccinated as many as we can. I must’ve gone to a half a dozen Arab communities already, talked to the mayors, brought the leaders there, brought the doctors there, Arab doctors: This is just outrageous.”
Che suggested in February that “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.” (RELATED: Biden Has First Call With Netanyahu Since Becoming President)
“Saturday Night Live’s ‘joke’ isn’t just untrue – it’s dangerous, a modern twist on a classic anti-Semitic trope that has inspired the mass murder of countless Jews throughout the centuries,” read a February statement from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in response to the earlier remark.
“It’s so false,” the prime minister continued, stating that “many, many Arab citizens” are voting for him because he not only “brought vaccines for everyone, but I brought peace for everyone.”
Netanyahu said the recent “four historic peace agreements” between Israel and neighboring Arab states has brought more security to everyone. “Everyone in Israel said, ‘How? Wow! Who brought this?'”
The prime minister said when he goes to Arab villages in Israel he is greeted with “We love you” and is called “father of the year.”
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said the SNL joke created “outrage in the American Jewish community in many pockets for this … so-called joke” and that people have continued to protest while the show is being performed. (RELATED: Biden Administration To Keep US Embassy In Jerusalem)
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu waves as he arrives outside the West Wing of the White House Sept. 15, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“It’s important to understand that Israel is a racist state in that they would deny Palestinians like my grandmother access to a vaccine. That they don’t believe that she’s an equal human being that deserves to live, deserves to be able to be protected by this global pandemic,” Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib said in January.
The Palestinian Authority began vaccinating residents in early February after Israel shared its supply.