Jerry Seinfeld blasts anti-Israel heckler during Sydney standup gig

Jerry Seinfeld took down a pro-Palestine supporter who heckled the comedian during his Sydney stand-up gig at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday night. The incident, captured on video by the Australian Jewish Association, unfolded when an audience member interrupted Seinfeld with a provocative chant.

As Seinfeld performed for the crowd, the heckler shouted, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ The outburst prompted immediate reactions from the audience who demanded the protester to ‘get out’ and chanted ‘Jerry, Jerry’ in solidarity with the 70-year-old comedian.

Security quickly intervened, escorting the heckler out as the audience erupted in boos. Seinfeld, known for his sharp wit, didn’t miss a beat.

‘We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen,’ he quipped sarcastically. ‘He solved the Middle East [crisis].’ The seasoned comedian then launched into a scathing satire of the heckler’s approach. ‘It’s the Jewish comedian, that’s who we have to get, they’re the ones doing everything,’ Seinfeld joked.

‘They’re going to start punching you in about three seconds, so I would try to get all of your genius out so we can all learn from you.’ Seinfeld’s clapback didn’t stop there, joking that the heckler came to the right place to make his point. ‘You’re really influencing everyone here; we’re all on your side now, because you’ve made your point so well, and in the right venue. You’ve come to the right place for a political conversation,’ he said.

‘Tomorrow we will read in the paper, “Middle East 100 percent solved thanks to man at the Qudos arena stopping Jew comedian”. ‘They stopped him and everyone in the Middle East was like, “Oh my god let’s just get along, we can do that”.’ Seinfeld also addressed Australia’s own history with racial issues. ‘Because I know there are problems here, with Indigenous Aboriginal people and the white,’ he noted.

‘They have problems here so maybe to solve that, I will screw up a Jim Jefferies in a show in New York. If that works, this will work. You have to go 20,000 miles from the problem and screw up a comedian, that is how you solve world issues.’ Seinfeld has made his support for Israel very clear, making him a prime target of Pro-Palestine supporters.

The comedian told the Times of Israel in December 2023, a little over two months after the war in Gaza began, he ‘lived and worked on a kibbutz in Israel when I was 16 and I have loved our Jewish homeland ever since’. He added he would ‘always stand with Israel and the Jewish people’.

Following those comments, Seinfeld was accosted in New York City after attending the State of the World Jewry Address in February. Journalist Bari Weiss gave the address, and as Seinfeld left the event, protestors repeatedly screamed at him ‘free Palestine’ and ‘you support genocide’. And most recently, dozens of Duke University students walked out of their own commencement ceremony over frustration that Seinfeld was about to speak.

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