Jerry Seinfeld compared the far-right Ku Klux Klan hate group to the “Free Palestine” movement at an event on Tuesday, saying they both “don’t like Jews.”
Speaking at Duke University alongside a released Israeli hostage, the Jewish actor and comedian argued that the slogan “Free Palestine” serves as cover for antisemites.
Seinfeld made an unannounced appearance at the event, where he was featured alongside Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli taken captive by Hamas-led terrorists during their invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. He was released during a ceasefire agreement earlier this year.
“Free Palestine, to me, is just — you’re afraid to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld quipped.
“By saying Free Palestine, you’re not admitting what you really think,” he went on. “Actually, compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”
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His comment drew chuckles from the audience.
The event was organized by Duke’s Chabad center, along with the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East, university centers, and Jewish student groups, university newspaper The Chronicle said in a Wednesday report.
@JerrySeinfeld spoke passionately at @DukeU tonight, introducing Omer Shem-Tov, who survived 505 days in Hamas captivity. Shem-Tov, now a deeply religious man, was asked if he had compassion for his torturers. “None,” he bravely said. “Nor they for me.” 1/2 pic.twitter.com/A65PbmGP1p
— Mary McDonald-Lewis (@mmcdonaldlewis) September 9, 2025
Seinfeld, 71, has been an outspoken supporter of Israel since the October 7 attack and took a solidarity trip to Israel in December 2023. He met with hostages’ relatives and visited Kibbutz Be’eri and the site of the Nova Music Festival, both of which were ravaged during the onslaught.
In a May 2024 interview, Seinfeld said the wartime trip was “the most powerful experience of my whole life.”
He has also been a vocal critic of pro-Palestinian activism, which he has previously tied to antisemitic attitudes. During a tour in Australia last year, he was heckled during a performance in Sydney by a protester who accused him of being a “genocide supporter.”
“We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen,” Seinfeld said to laughter. “He’s solved the Middle East. He’s solved it! It’s the Jewish comedians, that’s who we have to get.”
At another event in Melbourne days afterward, he was again heckled.
“I think you need to go back and tell whoever’s running your organization: ‘We just gave more money to a Jew,’” Seinfeld told the protester, eliciting waves of laughter from the crowd. “That cannot be a good plan for you.”
He has previously confronted the issue at Duke as well, where he gave a commencement address and received an honorary degree in 2024. Some 30 students among the crowd of thousands walked out of the ceremony, with some chanting “Free Palestine” in protest of him.
Former hostage Omer Shem Tov speaks to Channel 12 in the network’s recreation of a tunnel where he was held captive in Gaza, in an interview broadcast May 8, 2025. (Screen capture: Channel 12)
Seinfeld made the remarks this week as he introduced Shem Tov at the event, which was restricted to Duke students, faculty, and staff. The comedian’s appearance was not publicized beforehand.
The star recalled his visit to Israel, where he called his meeting with the families of hostages a “heartbreaking moment.”
“So to be here tonight and experiencing this is really incredible,” Seinfeld said, referring to Shem Tov’s impending address to the event.
A university spokesperson told The Chronicle, “Jerry Seinfeld introduced the speaker and requested his appearance not be announced beforehand, given Omer Shem Tov’s experiences were the focus of the event.”
“Duke does not preview the remarks of speakers who are invited to campus, and the invitation of speakers to campus does not imply any endorsement of their remarks,” the spokesperson continued.
Shem Tov was greeted with a standing ovation and then went on to describe his capture and abuse in captivity by Hamas.
“I thought, ‘I cannot leave my family. It cannot end like this,’” he said, according to a Chronicle report of his remarks.
Amid accusations that Israel has created famine conditions in the Strip, Shem Tov also said he saw Hamas hoarding boxes of humanitarian aid that had been taken from deliveries meant for Gaza’s civilian population.
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