Israeli Comedy skit satirizing Jesus and Mary labeld Racist and Anti-Semitic

[Larkspur]

from the blog of Juan Cole, Informed Comment:

Palestinians: Israeli Attack on Jesus, Mary "Racist," Anti-Semitic
The satirical comedy skits put on by Lior Klein concerning Jesus and Mary on Israel's Channel 10 last week have provoked rallies and protests by Palestinian-Israeli Christians, of whom there are about 120,000. They also drew condemnation from Muslim Palestinian-Israelis, of whom there are over a million. Klein said that since Christians were denying the Holocaust, he was denying Christianity. He and Channel 10 later apologized to a delegation of Israeli Christians, and pledged that the skits would not be rerun. (Al-Safir covered the affair in Arabic).

The skits denied Jesus's miracles, said he died young because he was too fat and so could not have walked on water, and said Mother Mary was not a virgin but rather a promiscuous woman who had had many lovers and first got pregnant in high school at age 15. Palestinian-Israelis viewed them as a secular Israeli attack on Arab beliefs and folkways. That is, the pieces were viewed as racist and not just anti-religious but as ethnic bigotry. They were even called "anti-Semitic," since Arabs are Semites as are Jews.

SNIP

One background for this Palestinian-Israeli response is that the crucified Christ is often taken by Palestinian Christians as a symbol of their displacement and expropriation at the hands of Israelis. So the attack on that symbol ('died young of being obese') by a representative of the Jewish majority was doubly painful, since it repeated on a symbolic level the Israeli denial of the 1948 Catastrophe and even of the existence of the Palestinians.

I deduce that this satirical skit was really aimed at the Vatican who did not condemn the anti-Jewish sentiments of one of their own, but the skit was too broad of an attack. Most Christians have come a long way from the days when they either explicitly or implicitly supported pogroms against Jews, and Palestinian Christians saw a direct attack on them by imperialistic Israeli Jews. That's the problem with broad based satire. It's like using a shot gun. Lots of innocents can get caught in the flak.

[thunder rising]

1. Fkn Christians are as bad as any Taliban ... just say'n ... you know they are nuts

[lazer47]

3. All Christians aren't nuts, just like all Atheists, aren't nuts, just like all Jews aren't nuts

Now the Taliban , thats a diffrent situation,, they really are FKN nuts,,,,

[thunder rising]

8. The Christians the aren't nuts are not doing enough to stop the ones that are. Fk'em all

[Cherchez la Femme]

11. As are Zionists, too

Heck, fundy sects of ANY religion can, does and will go over the edge.
It's the nature of the beast (no Apocryphal pun intended).
Fundamentalism = 'We're the only one's right' = Disrespect. It's sadly inherent.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. There are very few Christians anywhere near as bad as the Taliban.

Come to that, there aren't all that many Muslims anywhere near as bad as the Taliban, although they are a higher proportion than among Christians.

[shaayecanaan]

22. Ive known a few...

Quite a few Christian militia leaders would boast of killing Muslim women and children, and sport trophies made of tongues and ears - Yitzhak Shamir was greeted with a bag of ears when he first met with the Christians.

Of course, there were horrible atrocities committed by the Muslims. Still, the Christians on balance were worse, not because they were more evil but because they were weaker and more desperate.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Ah, that brings back memories of my Youth..

and all the kerfuffle over Monty Python's Life of Brian!

I don't think anyone called it antisemitic; but Mary Whitehouse called it everything else.

Mixing religion with comedy can get very interesting reactions!

[Crunchy Frog]

10. The Monty Python instance differed in that

the people (Monty Python) who were satirizing Christianity themselves came from the Christrian tradition and Christian backgrounds. Also, it was in a country that was predominantly Christian (at least nominally). If the movie had been primarily satirizing Judaism (I know it did to a degree, but Christianity was its primary target), it would have been deservedly judged much more harshly IMHO. When it's members of a minority being targeted by members of a majority it's just percieved differently, fairly or not.

Do Jewish beliefs get satirized like that in Israel? (I honestly don't know the answer and am curious.)

[Cherchez la Femme]

12. J'adore Monty Python

but there's a big difference between secular comedy (no religion escaped their dissection) and comedy put out by a religious group.

Can you imagine the outcry if The Vatican put on a comedy show making fun of Hebrew holy books/beliefs?

[shaayecanaan]

21. Plenty of people called it anti-semitic

there was controversy over an eventually deleted scene showing Otto (the guy who commits suicide with his followers at the end) marching under a banner showing a star of david that had been melded with a swastika.

[oberliner]

25. If the scene wasn't in the movie, how could there have been controversy?

Do you mean there was controversy when the DVD with the deleted scenes came out years later?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I have a friend who is a Palestinian Christian

who told about how they were persecuted by the Israeli government. One must look at the motivation in doing this skit at this time and in this place. It is different from "Life of Brian", which was not made in the Middle East, and not for an exclusively Christian audience.

[Larkspur]

9. I had a Palestinian Christian in college as a friend

We talked a lot about the violence in Palestine and Northern Ireland. We were in college during the early 1980's. I am of Irish descent and saw similarities between the two conflicts. My Palestinian friend supported the PLO violence against Israel because she saw it as a war of independence and the Jews who settled there as colonists who stole her family's land.

[ensho]

5. Israelis need therapy

nt

[rrneck]

6. Religious symbols

can be difficult to use in any context because they mean so much to so many people but at the same time they are intensely personal. The negative ramifications of the content can go to ground far from the source.

Somehow it reminds me of several guys grabbing an electric fence in a chain of hands, and the last one in the chain is the one to get the shock...

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Anti-semitic?

:rofl:

[Cherchez la Femme]

13. Palestinians are a semitic people, by definition

but I know you are aware of that... you're far from dumb <---meant as a compliment, not a barb: on Edit

so why the ROFL?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. "Anti-semitic" is nothing to do with non-Jewish semitic people.

It means, specifically "prejudiced against Jews". It's one of many terms, like decimate or hubris or glamour, that does not mean exactly the same as its antecedents.

Prejudice against other semitic peoples is just as bad as antisemitism (and much, much more prevalent in the West), but it isn't antisemitism.

[Cherchez la Femme]

24. by strict definition, no

but it certainly is fitting :(

[Behind the Aegis]

26. Anti-Semitism

"The hatred of Jews; prejudice and/or bigotry directed at Jews or the Jewish religion."

[iconicgnom]

14. This is a comedy skit.

People who "take offense" should grow up.

[Larkspur]

15. Then you wouldn't object to skits satirizing Jews their religion, and Zionism?

We know that AIPAC would slam anyone in the US who dares to mock Jews, Judaism and Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

16. I wouldn't object to satires of any religion, or of atheists if it comes to that!

I suppose that if the skit was *directed* at Christian Arabs, then one could argue that it was provocative. Not illegal but ill-advised. But if it was for everyone, and the Christians just happened to take offense, then it's the same as with any religion.

BTW, iconicgmom is very pro-Palestinian, so I don't know what your reference to AIPAC is all about here!

[oberliner]

17. There is no end to the number of skits satirizing Jews, their religion, and Zionism

Ever seen a Mel Brooks movie? Listened to a Sarah Silverman routine?

You have a misguided idea about what AIPAC is and does if you think they would "slam anyone in the US who dares to mock Jews, Judaism and Israel".

[azurnoir]

20. an old SNL skit comes to mind

one that managed to get Jews and Christians it involved a newly returned and somewhat drunken Jesus traveling house to house for Seder "you mean I get a get a glass of wine everywhere I stop? party"

[oberliner]

23. I think that was Jerry Seinfeld as Elijah the prophet

Pretty sure it was Seinfeld playing Elijah visiting houses during the Seder.

[azurnoir]

27. you prbably be right

my memory is more visual a guy with long hair and a beard and Elijah would be more proper, do you actually remember the skit?