{"id":617701,"date":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617701\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T00:34:09","slug":"portuguese-artists-drop-out-of-jerry-seinfeld-headlined-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/617701\/","title":{"rendered":"Portuguese Artists Drop Out of Jerry Seinfeld-Headlined Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMultiple acts participating in a comedy festival in Portugal, the inaugural MEO Commedia a La Carte Fest (Lisbon International<\/a> Humour Festival), have announced that they are no longer participating.<\/p>\n

\n\tActress In\u00eas Aires Pereira announced on Saturday that her show Namast\u00ea was being removed from the festival\u2018s lineup and explained her reasoning being that \u201cone of the names insistently defends ideas and acts that I consider indefensible.\u201d She also added in her social media post<\/a>: \u201cWe cannot relativize or normalize a genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer statement did not explicitly identify any particular act that she was referring to. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe comedy duo Cebola Mol, made up of Eduardo Madeira and Filipe Homem Fonseca, also announced on Saturday that they too would not be performing in the festival. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will celebrate justice, freedom and joy with you on another occasion,\u201d they wrote on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther acts to withdraw from the festival include concert \u201cTributo Pop\u201d (Carolina Deslandes, Tatanka and B\u00e1rbara Tinoco), the group Conjunto Cuca Monga, comedian Pedro Tochas and visual artist Vhils (Alexandre Farto). Reasoning was not publicly revealed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first edition of the Lisbon International Humour Festival will take place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmerican comedian Jerry Seinfeld<\/a> is headlining the festival. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe comedian has openly supported Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict<\/a>. When announcing their exit from the upcoming festival, Cebola Mol shared an illustrated photo of themselves and a watermelon, which is recognized as an unofficial symbol<\/a> for Palestinian solidarity. The fruit\u2019s colors notably match the Palestinian flag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSeinfeld recently received backlash for his comments<\/a> last year while appearing at a Duke University event, where he compared the Free Palestine movement to the Ku Klux Klan. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFree Palestine is, to me, just \u2014 you\u2019re free to say you don\u2019t like Jews,\u201d Seinfeld said,\u00a0according to\u00a0The Chronicle<\/a>, Duke University\u2019s student newspaper. \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\tThe\u00a0Chronicle\u00a0quoted a University spokesperson who noted, \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 Hollywood Reporter has reached out to reps for Seinfeld and the Portugal festival for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe entertainment industry has been increasingly vocal about the Israel-Gaza conflict, with calls to remove certain actors from projects including Kevin Zegers from Heated Rivarly<\/a>, and mounting criticism directed at individuals expressing opposing views on the issue. Two actors recently withdrew<\/a> from the production of Right Before I Go\u00a0at the Soho Theatre over Dame\u00a0Maureen Lipman\u2018s public comments about Israel and Palestine. A petition for Macklemore to be removed <\/a>from Ed Sheeran\u2018s tour has also spurred after the artist yelled \u201cFree Palestine\u201c while performing at the MetLife Stadium. <\/p>\n