Eretz Nehederet (Israeli satire TV show) on the Purim story
Friday night's episode included the Purim story, played by contemporary politicians. The JPost raises concerns that the show was racist.
The episode in question – a Purim special, aired on Friday night – portrayed US President Barack Obama wearing a large gold medallion around his neck, sporting harem pants and dancing to rap music. While the face and hands of the actor playing the president, series regular Eli Finish, were also painted black, Finish’s face was clearly a more exaggerated and darker shade.
Finish played an amalgamation of Obama and the Purim story’s King Ahasuerus in the episode, which opened with Mariano Edelman in his recurring role as Binyamin Netanyahu, reading the megilla as Mordechai the Jew. In a satirical twist, the character of Haman, the evil Persian prime minister, became the smooth-talking Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, openly discussing his desire to annihilate the Jews with nuclear weapons. Fortunately – and also contrary to the actual story in the Book of Esther – Haman-Ahmadinejad’s request was politely rejected by the king.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak (played by Tal Friedman) also made an appearance as the stubborn Queen Vashti, the character traditionally believed to have been beheaded by Ahasuerus for refusing to dance at his royal party. In the show, Obama-Ahasuerus instead argued with the queen about her violations of Palestinian human rights, telling her, “I know all about your people, you’ve occupied two million people and kept them behind the wall... You’ve launched massive military attacks on civilians.”
Later, he could be heard sighing, “I’m tired of these Jews, they make a lot of problems for me.”
Israel Matzav: Eretz Nehederet (Israeli satire TV show) on the Purim story
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