Michael and the mudbloods

Michael Rapaport in Israeli TV skit satirizing US college antisemitism

Harry Potter sketch mocks heads of universities who refused to directly condemn calls for genocide of Jews; satirical song highlights inequality between Hamas leaders, Gaza civilians

By ToI Staff 13 December 2023, 1:44 pm Edit
A screen capture from an 'Eretz Nehederet' video featuring US actor Michael Rapaport. (Screenshot, 'Eretz Nehederet', used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
A screen capture from an 'Eretz Nehederet' video featuring US actor Michael Rapaport. (Screenshot, 'Eretz Nehederet', used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

American-Jewish actor and comedian Michael Rapaport was a guest on the Israeli satirical show “Eretz Nehederet” on Tuesday night, appearing in a skit poking fun at the heads of prominent American universities who have been embroiled in scandal over the last week over their failure to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews.

Rapaport, who boasts more than two million followers on Instagram alone, has been outspoken in his support of Israel since the October 7 Hamas onslaught in which more than 1,200 people were killed and some 240 were taken hostage as thousands of terrorists flooded into Israel and launched the deadliest attack in the country’s history.

As part of his wartime visit to Israel, he visited Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and met with families of hostages, including relatives of the Bibas family — Shiri and Yarden and their two children, four-year-old Ariel and 11-month-old Kfir, all abducted and taken to Gaza.

On Tuesday, he appeared in an English-language skit on “Eretz Nehederet” in which he played the role of Albus Dumbledore, from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.

A screen capture from an ‘Eretz Nehederet’ video featuring US actor Michael Rapaport (left) which mocks US university presidents who refused to say that calling for genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ policies. (Screenshot, ‘Eretz Nehederet’, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Alongside him, three of the satire show’s cast appeared as Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout and Professor Snape, characters from the world-famous fantasy series.

The skit focused on the recent Congressional confrontation in which the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania refused to answer unambiguously when asked if calls for genocide of the Jewish people violate campus rules of harassment.

“It is a context-dependent decision,” Penn president Liz Magill responded to the question, while Harvard president Claudine Gay said, “When speech crosses into conduct, we take action,” and MIT president Sally Kornbluth said that such language would only be “investigated as harassment if pervasive and severe.”

Following the outrage generated by their responses, Magill stepped down from her position on Saturday, while the Harvard Corporation decided that Gay will remain in her position despite intense scrutiny and calls to resign.

Tuesday’s “Eretz Nehederet” skit depicted the three Hogwarts professors being called in for a similar line of questioning by headmaster Dumbledore, only instead of referring to Jews, the questions were about “mudbloods,” a derogatory term for wizards born to non-wizard parents in the fictional world of Harry Potter.

“We summoned you here today to address the issue of anti-mudbloodism,” Dumbledore says. “You guys are all professors which means you’re smart, so this shouldn’t take long.”

The skit depicts the three professors skirting around the question of whether “advocating for the genocide of mudbloods” violates the school’s code of conduct.

“It’s a context-dependent decision,” Professor McGonagall says, echoing the words of Penn president Magill. Professor Sprout then fills the role of Harvard’s resident Gay, and suggests that “if speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment.”

When asked the same question, Professor Snape says, “On the one hand, as a Slytherin professor, I do have some feelings against [mudbloods,] but on the other hand, as a half-blood myself, I think calling for their genocide is perfectly alright.”

The comment appears to be a reference to MIT’s Kornbluth, who is Jewish.

Growing increasingly frustrated with their non-answers, Dumbledore asks, “What happened to you all? This used to be a good school… have the dark forces penetrated the castle walls?”

It’s at this point that the sketch departs from the thinly veiled metaphor, as Professor Sprout enthusiastically answers “Yes! It’s the Qataris.”

Hearing how much the Qataris are paying the school, Dumbledore enthusiastically says, “For that kind of money, I’d say f*** all the mudbloods myself, and the Jews too.”

Breaking character, Rapaport then turns to the camera and says, “If you didn’t get the metaphor, that’s because you’re as stupid as a Harvard graduate.”

Universities across the US have been accused of failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide since the deadly October 7 onslaught on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza in which Israel has vowed to eliminate the ruling terror group.

The Harry Potter-themed sketch isn’t the first time that “Eretz Nehederet” has highlighted the issue of antisemitism on college campuses in recent weeks. On November 5, a skit depicting a pair of college students giving mindless support to Hamas terrorists went viral and was viewed over 11 million times on social media within the first 24 hours after it aired.

Hamas wealth

Also during Tuesday night’s show, “Eretz Nehederet” highlighted the disconnect between Hamas’s leaders, who live in luxury in Qatar, and the civilians of Gaza who are suffering with limited access to food and shelter.

The short satirical song opens with a charity appeal for assistance in Gaza, as a woman appears onscreen and says: “The children of Gaza are suffering, they have no food or medicine but you can help, please open your heart and make a donation by clicking on the link below.”

Screen capture from a video of an ‘Eretz Nehederet’ satirical song criticizing Hamas leaders in Qatar for living a life of luxury while the population of Gaza suffers amid war they started (Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

The video then cuts to a graphic depicting the amount of aid that has been sent to the people of Gaza from around the world before being immediately redirected to Qatar.

Three of the “Eretz Nehederet” cast members play the roles of Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau; former Hamas head Khaled Mashaal; and Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of the Hamas political bureau.

All three currently reside in Qatar and have net worths of roughly $3 billion, $4 billion and $4 billion respectively, according to reports from Fox News, the National Post and others.

The short satirical song shows the three Hamas leaders living in luxury homes, wearing silk robes and gold jewelry, enjoying expensive cars, cigars and decadent food.

“I can’t believe what we’ve brought on Gaza, thank God that we are safe in Doha Plaza,” the song starts, with clips of three Hamas leaders playing poker in gold and white marble surroundings.

“Dollar bills, dollar bills, our people have no water, wonder how that feels,” the character of Abu Marzouk sings as he lounges in a deep bath.

Earlier this month, the IDF published receipts found during raids on Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip that it said showed that one of Haniyeh’s sons bought jewelry in recent years worth thousands of dollars while many in Gaza were going hungry.

The post from IDF Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee purported to show five receipts, worth some $25,000 in total, from both Gaza and Qatar for purchases made by Moaz Haniyeh.

The post noted that the “amount of just one receipt is equivalent to approximately two years’ wages for a Gaza resident.”

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