Israeli "Saturday Night Live" Uses Satire to Skewer the BBC For Their Biased Reporting

Even in the midst of tragedy, a dose of humor can serve to clarify and expose misguided and biased reporting.

Two weeks after the invasion of Israel by Hamas terrorists, Israeli comedy writers went to work creating satiric sketches about the aftermath, notably about the BBC reporting misinformation related to the faulty rocket that damaged the parking lot next to a hospital.

The sketch appeared on Eretz Nehederet, the Israeli version of Saturday Night Live, one of the most popular TV programs in Israel.

As K. J. Yossman wrote in Variety,

In the Eretz Nehederet sketch, which has gone viral since the broadcast on Israeli network Keshet 12 on Wednesday evening, Israeli actor Liat Harlev plays a BBC anchor arbitrarily inventing the number of fatalities from the attack. “More, more” she urges as the figure on the chyron jumps from 500 to 750. She then links to Middle East correspondent Harry Whiteguilt (played by comedian Yuval Semo) who, clad in a press flak jacket, says he’s reporting from the “illegal colony” of Tel Aviv and goes on to describe Hamas as “the most credible not terrorist organization in the world.” Beneath him on the screen a chyron flashes up saying “We love Hamas.” 

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