The Thursday morning show on Channel 2, Israel’s leading television channel, offered some rare satisfaction for religious Israeli viewers, who are used to seeing their sensibilities scorned by the media.
The show’s host, Avri Gilad, a leading entertainment-media personality in Israel since the 1980s, voiced his disgust with a reality show that made participants eat creatures defined as unkosher by the Bible. Gilad demanded that a promotional segment for the reality show never be shown on the morning show again, despite the fact that the reality show is aired by the same production company that pays his salary.
The company, Reshet, was furious with Gilad for his criticism of their flagship production, “The Race for the Million,” according to a report in Ma’ariv/NRG.
Israel News photo: (promotional)
The incident occurred when the morning show’s entertainment reporter, Keren Natanzon, presented a promotional excerpt from “The Race for the Million.” The segment showed contestants, who were in Japan, being told to drink soup that was prepared from snakes and scorpions.
Gilad reacted angrily to the segment and said: “It is disgusting that they show this on television. 
"Our forefathers burned in the fire pits in order not to eat pork and their children eat vermin to win a stage in a reality show.” 
When Jewish contestants have to eat scorpions, snakes and cockroaches and they air this, we are saying to all of the religious people – ‘okay guys, bye-bye, we’ll see you some other time.’”
“I sat in front of it and turned off the television,” the fuming Gilad added. “This is the last time that we see a segment like this on the morning show. I know it brings ratings but you can all go jump in a lake. As a viewer it turns me away from the screen and as a Jew it is especially problematic. Our forefathers burned in the fire pits in order not to eat pork and their children eat vermin to win a stage in a reality show.”
A source in Reshet told NRG that Gilad “has the right to think what he wants about Reshet, but he can’t say it live on the air when he gets paid by Reshet.”
Reshet’s formal reaction was that Gilad “is a unique talent with well-formed views on a variety of subjects and this fact makes him popular. Reshet encourages pluralism of opinions even when the contents being discussed are its own.”
Gilad refused to comment.
In recent years, Gilad has grown closer to Judaism, after being influenced by the late Yemima Avital, charismatic healer and founder of the Yemima Method. The past decade has seen a growing tide of teshuva, or a return to Jewish faith, among Israeli entertainment personalities.
