From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Comedian Ramy Youssef calls to free ‘the people of Palestine and the hostages’ in ‘SNL’ monologue
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American comedian Ramy Youssef says he is praying for God to “free the people of Palestine” and “free the hostages” during a monologue on US sketch-comedy show “Saturday Night Live.”
Youssef, who is a practicing Muslim, recounts being asked recently by his friend to pray for his family in Gaza.
“That night I go to pray and my prayers are… complicated, I’ve got a lot to fit in,” he says as part of a longer joke about his irreligious friends asking him to pray for them despite not believing in doing so themselves.
“I’m like ‘God, please, please help Ahmed’s family, please stop the suffering, stop the violence. Please free the people of Palestine, please,” he says to cheers and applause.
“And please free the hostages, all the hostages, please,” he adds, again to renewed applause.
Youssef has called repeatedly for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and wore an Artists for Ceasefire pin at the Oscars award show earlier in March.
At the time, he told Variety magazine that the call for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire” was a “universal message of, ‘let’s stop killing kids, let’s not be part of more war.”
Youssef worked in Israel alongside Israeli actors when filming the third season of his show “Ramy” in 2022.
The Times of Israel Community.