Ahead of Easter Sunday,Ramy Youssefopened hisSaturday Night Livehosting debut by addressing his faith and the Israel-Hamas war.
Beginning on a light note, the comedian andRamycreator joked, This is an incredibly spiritual weekend.
Were in the holy month of Ramadan.
Ramy Youssef on ‘Saturday Night Live’.YouTube/NBC
And yesterday,Beyonce released a new album.
Theres just so many religions celebrating all at once.
Im friends with a lot of sinners like, just disgusting people.
And they call me when theyre in trouble because they want me to pray for them.
Im like, Dude, I got you.
So that night, I go to pray, and my prayers are… complicated, Youssef said.
Ive got a lot to fit in.
Im like, God, hey, hey help Ahmeds family.
c’mon stop the suffering.
hey free the people of Palestine, hey.
Hes a beautiful dog.
Im praying for that dog.'
Were calling for immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Were calling for peace and lasting justice for the people of Palestine, Youssef toldVarietyon the Oscars red carpet.
Its a universal message of, Lets stop killing kids.
Lets not be part of more war.
No one has ever looked back at war and thought a bombing campaign was a good idea.
A lot of people are going to be wearing these pins tonight.
Theres a lot of talking heads on the news.
This is a space of talking hearts.
Were trying to have this big beam to humanity.
Youssef is not the firstSNLhost who has made an impassioned reference to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
“This week we saw the horrible images and stories from Israel and Gaza.
So I know something about what that’s like.”
He continued, “I saw so many terrible pictures this week.
Israeli children and Palestinian children.
And it took me back to a really horrible, horrible place.
No one in this world deserves to suffer like that, especially not kids.”
Watch Youssefs full monologue above.
