Jerry Seinfeld has some very strong feelings about the “Free Palestine” movement, and isn’t afraid to voice them publicly.
On Tuesday, the comedian spoke at a Duke University event, where he compared “Free Palestine” to the notoriously racist Ku Klux Klan organization, going on to say that the KKK was less offensive.
“Free Palestine is, to me, just — you’re free to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld said, according to The Duke Chronicle. Seinfeld was there to introduce Omer Shem Tov, a former Israeli hostage who was abducted by Hamas at the October 7th, 2023, Nova music festival and held captive for 505 days.
Related Video
“By saying Free Palestine, you’re not admitting what you really think,” Seinfeld added. “So it’s actually — compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ Okay that’s honest.”
The event was organized by Duke student groups in conjunction with the University, but school administrators denied any responsibility for Seinfeld’s inflammatory remarks.
“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,” an unnamed University spokesperson told The Duke Chronicle. “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.”
Seinfeld’s staunch support of Israel is well-documented, resulting in a mass student walk-out during his commencement speech at Duke University last spring. It was also last year when he was heckled by a pro-Palestinian protester during a comedy show in Sydney, Australia. “We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He’s solved the Middle East,” Seinfeld said in response to the heckler. “He’s solved it! It’s the Jewish comedians, that’s who we have to get.”
Just last month, a sold-out Seinfeld show in Eugene, Oregon, was protested over the comedian’s comments on Gaza and Palestine.
