Watch: Will an Indian news show host ever criticise the government like Israel's Assaf Harel did?
'Apartheid has been here for ages'. That's how the well-known TV personality signed off from the last episode of his show.
Arnab Goswami ended his last episode of Newshour without much fanfare. Israeli TV personality Assaf Harel might have shown the perfect way to end a news show – by eviscerating the government’s policies with the final monologue.
On the final episode of his news programme, Good Night With Asaf Harel, Harel, who is also known for satirical comedy, lambasted Israel’s policies towards Palestine.
“Ever since the right-wing took power, more and more voices are warning of apartheid,” Harel said. “Are you kidding? Apartheid has been here for ages. Ages. It’s just that we’re on the good side, so it doesn’t really bother us.”
Harel joined issue with the anti-Palestine sentiment in the country and the collaboration with US President Donald Trump. “Israel’s most impressive innovation, more than any high-tech project or Rafael weapon, is our amazing ability to ignore what is happening mere kilometers away to our neighbours, a whole people, transparent, like it doesn’t exist,” he said. “On one side the extremists kill, and on the other side the extremists talk. On one side the extremists burn people alive, and on the other side the extremists demand human rights.”
Harel’s show is known for taking contrarian stances and has proved to be controversial. According to a report, the TV personality was fined after he made fun of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of exploiting his brother’s death for political gain.
Harel went on to make an impassioned appeal for peace: “If only for once we can wake up before the war. Because up until now, we only wake up after. We had to have the Yom Kippur War to have peace with Egypt. We had to have the intifada for the Oslo Accords. If only for once we could be smart enough to reach a peace agreement before the war.”