A television comedy sketch that treated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a subject for humour has been roundly condemned by the Zionist Federation.

ZF chairman Paul Charney said the sketch, broadcast on BBC Three’s comedy programme, The Revolution Will Be Televised, “ridicules antisemitism at a time when anti-Jewish bigotry is on the rise”.

The programme, which aired in December, showed comedians Jolyon Rubinstein, who is Jewish, and Heydon Prowse dressed as workmen pretending to be employed by the Israeli embassy in south-west London.

They informed local property owners that they were taking their land, explaining: “Before it was your land, it was our land, so we are really going to take what was rightfully ours. This is our land that was given to us by the Almighty.”

Mr Charney said: “No doubt the makers thought they were being tremendously edgy, mocking Israel by suggesting it takes land with impunity. Instead, they simply pandered to the prejudices of those who believe that the less than one per cent of the Middle East which is devoted to Jewish national self-determination is still too much.”

Mr Rubinstein said that the point of the prank was not to make fun of the Middle East conflict but to draw people’s attention to the issue.