Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the mocking of tefillin by the weekly satirical show “Eretz Nehederet” (lit. Wonderful Country) Thursday.
"We do not have to wear kippot to understand the importance of our heritage for the future of our people," Netanyahu said. "It is the essence of our existence. It is what distinguishes us and strengthens us. I'm all for satire, but there are things that you simply do not do."
The skit in which an actor playing Education Minister Naftali Bennett is seen wearing a pair of tefillin on his head in imitation of the Israeli representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, Netta Barzilai caused an uproar upon its syndication Wednesday evening.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said that "this evening, an insulting and offensive piece was broadcast on the Eretz Nehederet program which ridiculed and mocked tefillin, the holy commandment for which Jews throughout the generations sacrificed their lives to be able to fulfill. If something like this had happened in another country, they would cry anti-Semitism. But here, in the Jewish state, it passes in silence. Disgrace.”
The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, condemned the incident as well, saying that "The use of religious articles in a mocking and insulting manner is terrible. It is unacceptable that such a thing be broadcast in the Israeli media and this is not culture or entertainment, it’s mockery of tefillin and of religious objects and a trampling of the feelings of millions of Jews.”
Rabbi Lau also said that he expects the program to issue an apology and not to air similar material in the future.