Israel’s health minister condemns SNL for ‘anti-Semitic lie’

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein condemns “Saturday Night Live” after one of its actors suggests only Jews are being vaccinated in Israel, calling the allegation an “anti-Semitic lie.”

“Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m gonna guess it’s the Jewish half,” cracked Weekend Update co-host Michael Che to a chuckling audience.

Saturday Night Live Weekend Update co-host Michael Che on February 20, 2021. (Screen capture/YouTube)

US Jewish groups have demanded he apologize.

“I’m updating you that anti-Semitism isn’t funny, it’s dangerous and false,” tweets Edelstein in Hebrew, tagging SNL.

“In Israel, more Arabs have been vaccinated than in most countries around the world. Satire is meant to be amusing, not horrifying. Your ‘joke’ is an anti-Semitic lie that could have dangerous repercussions in a country in which just two and a half years ago, 11 Jewish worshipers were killed just because they were Jews,” adds Edelstein, referring to the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein at a press conference in Jerusalem on February 10, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)