Actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld, speaking during an event at Duke University, reportedly called the “Free Palestine” movement antisemitic, linking it to the Ku Klux Klan– the anti-Black and antisemitic hate group formed in the aftermath of the American Civil War. The remarks add to his previous comments supporting Israel’s war in Gaza.

“Free Palestine is, to me, just – you’re free to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld–who is Jewish–said, according to the student newspaper The Duke 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.’ Okay, that’s honest,” he added.

Seinfeld, who reached the height of his fame in the 1990s with the sitcom “Seinfeld,” appeared at the event in North Carolina on Tuesday to introduce Omer Shem Tov, an Israeli man abducted by Hamas operatives from the Nova music festival on 7 October 2023. Tov was in Hamas captivity for 505 days. 

The event, open only to Duke students, faculty and staff, was reportedly organised by student groups alongside the University, but Duke administrators dodged responsibility for Seinfeld’s presence.
According to a university spokesperson, “Seinfeld introduced the speaker and requested his appearance not be announced beforehand, given Omer Shem Tov’s experiences were the focus of the event”.

“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 University added in an email quoted by the Chronicle.

So far, Seinfeld or his spokesperson has not released any statement on the issue.

Jewish Seinfeld is a fierce critic of antisemitism and has supported Israel’s war in Gaza. Though he had never invoked the Klan, a racist group that believed that white people were better and wanted to see black people remain enslaved. 

In December 2023, he went to Tel Aviv to meet with families of Israeli hostages, where he experienced a missile attack. Later, he said the experience gave him a deeper understanding of war.

Last April, speaking to GQ, he said, “I don’t preach about [the war]. I have my personal feelings about it that I discuss privately. It’s not part of what I can do comedically, but my feelings are very strong.”