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Jerry Seinfeld was invited to Duke University to introduce former Israeli hostage Omer Shem-Tov at an on-campus event. During his introduction, the comedian on Tuesday condemned the Free Palestine movement in a comparison that invoked the rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan, a violently racist white supremacist terrorist group.
“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, per Duke University’s The Chronicle. “By saying ‘Free Palestine,’ you’re not admitting what you really think. 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.’ OK, that’s honest.”
The university toldThe Chroniclethat Seinfeld requested his appearance be kept under wraps. “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 outlet reported it received in an email statement. The event was organized by the Chabad at Duke student group in tandem with the university.
Reps for Seinfeld did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Seinfeld’s last appearance at Duke University also sparked backlash. A number of students walked out during his commencement speech in May 2024. Several months prior, Seinfeld traveled to Israel and met with “several groups of hostage family members,” he said, referring to those captured by Hamas during an attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Shortly after the incident, Israeli authorities reported that at least 199 people were abducted by Hamas militants, dozens of them from the Supernova rave that Shem-Tov attended.
Earlier this year, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal that would free dozens of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, as well as Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. It didn’t last. More than half a million people in the northern part of the Gaza Strip are now experiencing famine, a United Nations-backed food security initiative announced in August. Last week, per PBS, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past two years.
