\n<\/p>\n
Jerry Seinfeld denounced the Free Palestine movement as antisemitic and likened its rhetoric to that of the Ku Klux Klan during a surprise appearance at Duke University.<\/p>\n
\u201cFree Palestine is, to me, just \u2026 you\u2019re free to say you don\u2019t like Jews. Just say you don\u2019t like Jews,\u201d the 71-year-old comedian said on stage, according to the Duke University Chronicle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy saying \u2018Free Palestine\u2019, you\u2019re not admitting what you really think,\u201d he continued. \u201cSo it\u2019s actually \u2013 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
Seinfeld appeared at the event in North Carolina to introduce Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli man abducted at the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023, when the militant group Hamas and others killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted 252 others. He was held captive for 505 days. Since 7 October, Israel has killed more than 62,000 people in what leading experts have defined as genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Seinfeld, who is Jewish, also detailed his experience of visiting Tel Aviv to meet with families of the hostages as an effort to \u201ccall attention\u201d to their plight.<\/p>\n
The event was primarily sponsored by Chabad at Duke, alongside the Provost\u2019s Initiative on the Middle East, university centers and Jewish student groups. Seinfeld\u2019s appearance was not announced before the event, which was open to Duke students, faculty and staff.<\/p>\n
According to a university spokesperson, Seinfeld \u201crequested his appearance not be announced beforehand, given Omer Shem Tov\u2019s experiences were the focus of the event\u201d.<\/p>\n
\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 they added in an email quoted by the Chronicle.<\/p>\n
The Guardian has contacted Seinfeld\u2019s representatives for comment.<\/p>\n
Seinfeld has been a vocal supporter of Israel during its war in Gaza, though has never invoked the Klan, the anti-Black and antisemitic hate group formed in the aftermath of the American civil war. He told GQ last April, during promotion for his Netflix movie Unfrosted: \u201cI don\u2019t preach about [the war]. I have my personal feelings about it that I discuss privately. It\u2019s not part of what I can do comedically, but my feelings are very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
A month later, roughly 100 Duke students walked out of Seinfeld\u2019s commencement address at the university in protest against his support of Israel, with some chanting \u201cFree Palestine\u201d and waving Palestinian flags. Seinfeld continued with his speech despite the interruptions. \u201cA lot of you are thinking, \u2018I can\u2019t believe they invited this guy.\u2019 Too late,\u201d he said, after vowing to \u201cdefend\u201d the concept of privilege.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say, use your privilege. I grew up a Jewish boy from New York. That is a privilege if you want to be a comedian,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
That June, during a comedy show in Sydney, Seinfeld was heckled by a pro-Palestine audience member, who accused him of being a \u201cgenocide supporter\u201d. Seinfeld replied with sarcasm: \u201cWe have a genius, ladies and gentlemen. He\u2019s solved the Middle East. He\u2019s solved it! It\u2019s the Jewish comedians, that\u2019s who we have to get.\u201d<\/p>\n
During an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live in February, an influencer tried to get Seinfeld to say \u201cFree Palestine\u201d while taking a selfie. Seinfeld remarked: \u201cI don\u2019t care about Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jerry Seinfeld denounced the Free Palestine movement as antisemitic and likened its rhetoric to that of the Ku Klux Klan during a surprise appearance at Duke University. \u201cFree Palestine is, to me, just \u2026 you\u2019re free to say you don\u2019t like Jews. Just say you don\u2019t like Jews,\u201d the 71-year-old comedian said on stage, according<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[6926,533,12549,12552,12551,5731,1240,12550],"class_list":{"0":"post-20408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-compares","9":"tag-free","10":"tag-jerry","11":"tag-klan","12":"tag-klux","13":"tag-movement","14":"tag-palestine","15":"tag-seinfeld"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}