{"id":134635,"date":"2025-09-10T21:09:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/134635\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T21:09:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:09:06","slug":"jerry-seinfeld-compares-free-palestine-to-kkk-ignites-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/134635\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerry Seinfeld Compares ‘Free Palestine’ to KKK, Ignites Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJerry Seinfeld<\/a> made a controversial appearance at Duke University on Tuesday, where he compared the \u201cFree Palestine\u201d movement to the Ku Klux Klan. The college\u2019s newspaper, The Chronicle, reported on Seinfeld\u2019s comments <\/a>after they were made at an event featuring Omer Shem Tov, a former Israeli hostage who was held captive by Hamas for 505 days.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFree Palestine is, to me, just \u2014 you\u2019re free to say you don\u2019t like Jews,\u201d Seinfeld said. \u201cJust say you don\u2019t like Jews. By saying \u2018Free Palestine,\u2019 you\u2019re not admitting what you really think. So it\u2019s actually \u2014 compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I\u2019m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, \u2018We don\u2019t like Blacks, we don\u2019t like Jews.\u2019 OK that\u2019s honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tVariety has reached out to Seinfeld\u2019s representative for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesperson for Duke University told The Chronicle: \u201cDuke 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event hosted a conversation with Omer Shem Tov about his spiritual journey while being held hostage after he was kidnapped by Hamas while attending the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. According to The Chronicle, Seinfeld appeared at the event as \u201cpart of a brief introduction to Shem Tov and the event\u2019s moderator, N.C. State Sen. Sophia Chitlik, D-Durham.\u201d The event was \u201cwas sponsored primarily by Chabad at Duke, as well as the Provost\u2019s Initiative on the Middle East, University centers and Jewish student groups.\u201d Seinfeld\u2019s appearance was not advertised beforehand.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeinfeld has been outspoken in his support for Israel amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He made a trip to Israel in December 2023 and met with families of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack. He later\u00a0faced protesters<\/a>\u00a0in May 2024 while receiving an honorary degree at Duke University and was heckled <\/a>by Palestine supporters at a June 2024 comedy show in Sydney, Australia. His set was disrupted by chants such as \u201cfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He solved the Middle East!\u201d Seinfeld said sarcastically to the hecklers as the audience laughed and cheered. \u201cIt\u2019s the Jewish comedians, that\u2019s who we have to get! They\u2019re the ones doing everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the heckler continued to shout \u201cPalestine will be free\u201d as he was being ejected from the arena, Seinfeld quipped: \u201cGo ahead, keep going! They\u2019re going to start punching you in about three seconds so I would try to get all of your genius out so we can all learn from you. It\u2019s a comedy show, you moron! Get out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Seinfeld received an honorary degree at Duke University, dozens of students left the graduation ceremony and chanted \u201cFree, free Palestine\u201d in protest of his appearance. Others in the crowd responded to the protesters with applause and cheers of approval for Seinfeld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jerry Seinfeld made a controversial appearance at Duke University on Tuesday, where he compared the \u201cFree Palestine\u201d movement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,73292],"class_list":{"0":"post-134635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-jerry-seinfeld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}