John Oliver during the July 28, 2024, episode of his HBO show “Last Week Tonight.” Photo: Screenshot

British-American comedian and talk show host John Oliver accused Israel of perpetrating genocide and apartheid against Palestinians in not only Gaza but also the West Bank during Sunday night’s episode of his HBO talk show “Last Week Tonight.”

Roughly 12 minutes into the episode, which was titled “West Bank Settlements,” Oliver said he wanted to start talking about “Israel and Palestine.” He then devoted the rest of the episode to criticizing what he called Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank and the “illegal” Israeli settlers living there who he claimed kicked Palestinians out of their homes. He supported claims of there being an apartheid regime over the West Bank, talked about “Palestinian displacement by Jewish settlers” and Israelis “building on stolen land,” and featured videos detailing hardships Palestinians face in the West Bank.

He also discussed the phrase “never again,” which was popularized after the Holocaust and has been used by Jews worldwide as a vow to prevent another genocide and not allow themselves to be victimized again like they were by the Nazis. While attempting to explain the phrase, Oliver accused Israel of committing a genocide in the West Bank as well as in the Gaza Strip during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“A phrase that gets brought up a lot with regard to Israel is ‘never again,’ an anti-genocide slogan often invoked in memory of the Holocaust and it has always been open to two interpretations,” Oliver said. “There’s the one that means this must never again happen to the Jewish people and the one that means this must never again happen to any people anywhere. And in the West Bank, as in Gaza right now, it’s pretty clear which one the Israeli government has favored, and especially as long as [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is in power, he is clearly going to do what he and the worst people around him wants.”

During his mention of “the worst people” surrounding Netanyahu, an image appeared on the screen next to Oliver that showed Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Oliver went on to berate the United States for supporting Israel’s actions in the West Bank.

“The US doesn’t have to continue to abet that or cover for it,” he said. “We do have levers at our disposal here. We could put conditions on the billions of military aid we sent to Israel, we could stop vetoing UN Security Council resolutions critical of the Israeli government’s actions, which we’ve been doing for decades now, and we can say what is clear for everyone to see: these settlements aren’t just illegitimate or illegal, they’re immoral. And not only should we say that, we should act accordingly.”

Oliver also urged the US government to have the same “moral backbone” shown by the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s.

In 2021, the Vermont-based ice cream maker announced that it would stop selling its products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — areas it called “occupied Palestinian territories” — because it was “inconsistent” with the company’s values. Ben & Jerry’s is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British conglomerate Unilever and in response to the announcement, Unilever sold the Ben & Jerry’s business in Israel to a local licensee, Avi Zinger, who has continued to oversee that the company’s ice cream is being sold in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Sunday night’s episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” will be uploaded to YouTube on Aug. 1. Throughout the episode, Oliver repeatedly criticized Israel’s actions in the West Bank but failed to mention anything about the Palestinian Authority’s so-called “pay for slay” program, which makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists.

Oliver has previously supported calls for a ceasefire to end the Israel-Hamas war raging on in the Gaza Strip, which began following the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.