SNL's Micheal Che calls out Israel's Gaza genocide in joke

In a rare moment on US media, the satirical comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) commented on Israel's war on Gaza on Saturday, with one of its presenters calling it a genocide.

The comment came during the show's Weekend Update segment, where hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost discussed and joked about political developments and daily news, including the 27 October Israeli elections.

Speaking about the record number of voters, Che said: "This week, a record number of people voted in Israel's election, which is great to see, regardless of if you're on the right side, or the left side, or the genocide."

The comedian mumbled the joke, using wordplay on "side", while his co-host looked exaggeratedly shocked and audience members laughed.

While Che has not explicitly expressed pro-Palestine views before, the host did jokingly mock rapper Macklemore's "Free Palestine Tour" after Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran's US stadium tour, saying: "Haven't the Palestinian people been through enough?"

Che's "genocide" joke led to him being accused of antisemitism by Israel supporters, as well as receiving racist messages, to which the comedian responded on Instagram.

In one message, he asked, "Why is it ok to attribute antisemitism and Jewish hate to my one joke?"

Che is not the only figure to call out the war on the show, in his monologue, Egyptian American actor Ramy Youssef voiced his support for the Palestinian cause and highlighted Gazan suffering because of Israel's war.

US comedians have frequently been attacked for condemning Israel's war, with the likes of Dave Chappelle and Theo Von having garnered hostile responses for calling the war a genocide.

NBC, where the hit comedy shows air, and its sister network *MSNBC *have repeatedly been accused of a pro-Israel tilt in Gaza coverage.

Its UK counterpart, SNL UK, frequently calls out Israel's genocidal war, referring to Easter as "the time of year where we celebrate the only murdered Palestinian, we're allowed to talk about" and satirising ICC fugitive Netanyahu's address to the UN General Assembly.