Tribeca Festival has condemned comedian Elon Gold and influencer Lizzy Sabetsky’s jokes about Palestinian rape on the red carpet of The Wedding Entertainer as “offensive and unacceptable.”
In a video that was widely shared on social media and sparked outrage, Gold pointed out that “The Wedding Entertainer” was filmed in Israel. “The only people who raped me were two Israeli dogs,” Gold tells Savetsky in the video, to which Savetsky replies, “I thought they only raped Palestinians.”
“Sexual violence and human suffering should never be ridiculed or trivialized. The comments do not reflect Tribeca Festival’s values and we regret the hurt and offense they have caused,” the festival said in a statement.
The festival added that it had not been able to contact the filmmakers. A spokesperson for the film did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
Gold Star for “The Wedding Entertainer (The Story of Moishe Badan)”. This is the story of a down-on-his-luck Hasidic Jewish comedian who must secure one last job in order to raise the $20,000 needed to marry his daughter. Directed and co-written by Giddy Dahl.
This year marks the 25th annual Tribeca Festival. It was founded after 9/11 as a way to bring people back to Lower Manhattan, but has since grown to include events in every borough of the city. This year’s festival kicked off Wednesday with the premiere of director Amir “Questlove” Thompson’s new documentary Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World).
