{"id":2450793,"date":"2026-06-08T23:55:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2450793"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:55:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:55:47","slug":"tribeca-festival-denounces-pro-israel-celebrities-red-carpet-jokes-about-israeli-dog-rape-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/tribeca-festival-denounces-pro-israel-celebrities-red-carpet-jokes-about-israeli-dog-rape-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribeca Festival denounces pro-Israel celebrities&#8217; red-carpet jokes about Israeli dog rape allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>The Tribeca Festival has denounced jokes alluding to allegations of rape against Israeli prison guards made on the red carpet by the comedian and actor Elon Gold and pro-Israel influencer Lizzy Savetsky.<\/p>\n<p>The two Jewish figures made the jokes at the world premiere of Gold\u2019s new film \u201cThe Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan)\u201d on Thursday, and Savetsky included them in a highlights reel that she posted to Instagram on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>In the reel, Gold notes that it\u2019s significant that the Tribeca Festival, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, included a movie that was made in Israel. The implication was that at a time of surging anti-Israel sentiment, he would not have expected films with an Israeli connection to be admitted.<\/p>\n<p>Then he joked about his time in Israel: \u201cI was only raped by two Israeli dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Savetsky responded, \u201cI thought they only raped Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d Gold answered, laughing. \u201cI got also a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair were alluding to allegations of sexual abuse by Israeli prison guards against\u00a0 Palestinian prisoners that <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/2026\/05\/13\/israel\/kristof-column-alleging-israeli-abuse-of-palestinian-prisoners-sparks-outrage-scrutiny-and-debate-among-jews\">the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof surfaced in an opinion column last month<\/a>. One of the most sensational claims, which Israel rejected along with all the others, was that Israeli prison guards use dogs to rape prisoners.<\/p>\n<p>After the comments drew criticism online, the Tribeca Festival <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Tribeca\/status\/2063379996022915241?s=20\">said in a statement Saturday<\/a> that it \u201cunequivocally condemns the offensive and unacceptable remarks\u201d made by Savetsky and Gold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSexual violence and human suffering should never be mocked or minimized,\u201d the festival said. \u201cThe comments do not reflect the Tribeca Festival\u2019s values, and we regret the hurt and offense they have caused. We have not been able to reach the filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pro-Israel activists have condemned the column, Kristof and the newspaper for airing the allegations against Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to sue the newspaper over the claims.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DZSuojdRVpp\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\">Instagram video response<\/a> to a New York Times reporter asking for comment over email, Savetsky compared the allegations made in Kristof\u2019s column to an antisemitic blood libel.<\/p>\n<p>In a comment to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Savetsky denied that the jokes she made on the red carpet were \u201cabout rape\u201d as the festival alleged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a joke mocking the NYT story with a horrific blood libel,\u201d she said in a message to JTA. \u201cAny other interpretation is ridiculous and a deflection from the actual issue here which is irresponsible journalism meant to villainize Zionists. Comedy and the arts have always been used to address real issues\u2014the issue here should not be dog rape, which is biologically impossible, it should be the blood libel spread by the NYT.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cI stand by it with no regrets. The outrage only exposes how the press and those poisoned by anti-Israel propaganda will twist anything to blame the Jews \u2026 even when it means justifying a story with zero evidence about something biologically impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gold, who also served as executive producer on the film, did not respond to JTA\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan)\u201d is an Israeli comedy about a Hasidic ex-comedian who re-enters the comedy world after a battle with addiction to earn enough money to marry off his daughter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sfm-gofundmepro sfm-gofundmepro-incontent\">\n<div class=\"container wrapper-narrow\">\n<div class=\"sfm-gofundmepro--content\">\n<div class=\"sfm-gofundmepro--content-wrap\">\n<p><span data-sheets-root=\"1\"><strong>Reporting the stories that define our era.<\/strong> When history unfolds in real-time, the Jewish world turns to JTA. Your support ensures we can document the complexities of war and the resilience of Jewish communities with integrity.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"sfm-gofundmepro--form\">\n<p>\n\t\tOne-time<br \/>\n\t\tMonthly\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"sfm-classy--choose-label\">Choose an amount to donate<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t$72$180$360$500\t<\/p>\n<p>\tSupport Us<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.jta.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tribeca Festival has denounced jokes alluding to allegations of rape against Israeli prison guards made on the red carpet by the comedian and actor Elon Gold and pro-Israel influencer Lizzy Savetsky. The two Jewish figures made the jokes at the world premiere of Gold\u2019s new film \u201cThe Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan)\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2450794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Tribeca-Festival-denounces-pro-Israel-celebrities-red-carpet-jokes-about-Israeli-dog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450795,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450793\/revisions\/2450795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2450794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}