Crossing the line: Political satire compares Sa'ar to Nazi

Legitimate political satire or a clear crossing of lines? A public outcry has erupted against the popular TV satire "Eretz Nehederet" ("It's a Wonderful Country") after the show posted a controversial graphic of Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar on its Facebook page, featuring Holocaust imagery.

In the altered picture, Sa'ar is seen tattooing numbers onto people's arms. Flanking this image is a document the state attorney presented in court last week, requesting that African asylum-seekers in Israel be referred to by ID number alone, not by name. The satire's blatant comparison to Holocaust victims whose arms were tattooed by the Nazis was thought by some to be taking political humor too far.

Dozens posted angry responses. "Have you no shame? You have crossed the line," wrote Hila Arbili.

"You have gone too far. This post is far beyond the realm of good taste," wrote Oren Reginsky, "This is not satire, this is violence."

Many others wrote posts demanding the page managers remove the offensive picture, which garnered 700 "likes," a small number compared to other posts on the page.

"Eretz Nehederet" will premiere its new season on Channel 2 on Friday night, following the evening news. The episode will be taped the previous day.

The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel approached the cabinet's legal advisers yesterday to demand a full investigation into the political satire's creators.

"The comparison of a cabinet minister to a despicable murderer and Nazi stirs the suspicion of committing the crime of offending a public official," the forum said in a statement.

"These kinds of allegations could lead to, God forbid, the physically harming of the interior minister as we saw in the period preceding the murder of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin," forum attorney Tomer Israel said. "There is near certainty that publication on the Facebook page, which is followed by many people, will deeply harm the interior minister's standing in office."

The forum demanded that the cabinet's legal advisers ensure the immediate removal of the picture from the Facebook page.

Ze'ev Schwartz, representing Holocaust survivor groups in Israel, said, "The issue of the Holocaust should remain outside, and the satire's creators should be considerate of the feelings of Holocaust survivors and operate with the appropriate sensitivity."

"Eretz Nehederet" responded to the criticism in a statement, saying: "Our Facebook page is a forum for staging satirical ideas, sometimes much more extreme than what is suitable for TV programming. More than once, they have sparked profound debates. This specific idea pertained to the African refugees and the numbering system, which last week saw public outrage and large protests that were covered by the media in full."

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