At least two Jewish organizations are demanding an apology from Michael Che after a joke he made on Saturday Night Live this weekend.
During the ‘Weekend Update’ segment, which Che co-hosts with Colin Jost, Che made light of the vaccination efforts taking place in Israel.
‘Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population,’ Che says as he sets up the joke.
The joke immediately started an uproar, with accusations that the joke was anti-Semitic.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) quickly began circulating a petition Saturday Night Live ‘retract its outrageous claim and apologize immediately.’
‘The claim is categorically false: every Israeli, regardless of religion or ethnicity, is eligible for the COVID vaccine, and more than two thirds of Israel’s Arab citizens over 60 have already been vaccinated,’ the petition claims.
‘Saturday Night Live’s ‘joke’ isn’t just untrue—it’s dangerous, a modern twist on a classic antisemitic trope that has inspired the mass murder of countless Jews throughout the centuries.
StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy group, is also demanding an apology.
As of Sunday night, Saturday Night Live has not issued any sort of apology or retraction.
