Seinfeld responds to anti-Israel heckler by vowing to send ticket proceeds to Israel

Jewish-American comedian Jerry Seinfeld told an anti-Israel heckler he would donate the amount his ticket cost to Israel after he, along with several activists, interrupted his performance in Chicago on Friday.

Footage posted by the United States Palestine Coalition-Chicago group showed activists interrupting the show, accusing the comedian of being a racist and a “genocide apologist” over his support for Israel.

At one point, a male activist yelled: “Seinfeld! Seinfeld, listen to me! You’re a racist! There are 74,000 dead Palestinians. Seventy-four thousand Palestinians have been killed by the racist State of Israel.”

“I am a racist,” Seinfeld mockingly responded.

“Seinfeld, you will see. Palestine will be free,” the heckler continued.

“But I’m going to find out how much your ticket was and I’m sending it to Israel,” Seinfeld responded, according to the footage.

מהומה בהופעתו של ג'רי סיינפלד: מפגינה פרו-פלסטינית קטעה את המופע שקיים הקומיקאי בסוף השבוע בשיקגו והטיחה בו האשמות בנוגע למלחמה בעזה. סיינפלד השיב כי יתרום לישראל את עלות הכרטיס שרכשה, והיא הוצאה מהאולם על ידי המאבטחים@alon_fruchter (צילום: USPCN) pic.twitter.com/3vJjJrXh8X

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) October 12, 2026

At another point in the show, while in the middle of a joke, in which he complained he “had enough” of his cell service, a female activist yelled, “Well, I’ve had enough of genocide! Seventy-four thousand Palestinians have been killed! Twenty-two thousand Palestinians who are children now are killed with our taxpayer money, and you’re making jokes?”

“I’m racist, it’s a genocide, I’m into it,” he mockingly responded, as security began to take the heckler out of the audience.

“Two million Palestinians don’t get to dream because of the genocide! You are a genocide apologist,” another activist yelled during the show.

The activists were received angrily by the crowd, with an audience member calling for security to “rough that bitch up,” referring to one of the activists, and another overheard saying, “get the fuck out of here,” referring to another heckler.

Seinfeld traveled to Israel in December 2023, several months into the war sparked by the Hamas terror group’s October 7 invasion of Israel, in which terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

The comedian and his wife met with freed hostages and families of those who were still in captivity, and visited Kibbutz Be’eri, which lost more than a hundred of its 1,100 residents in the massacre. He later called the trip “the most powerful experience” of his life.

Seinfeld has been repeatedly heckled at shows and during a Duke University commencement speech over his expressions of support for Israel, and has mocked those interrupting him.

After someone disrupted an event with freed hostage Omer Shem Tov, the comedian said the Ku Klux Klan was “more honest” in its antisemitism than some who use the slogan “Free Palestine.”

On other occasions, Seinfeld has responded to the slogan by saying: “It doesn’t exist,” and “I don’t care about Palestine.”

Israel has denied accusations of genocide during the war in Gaza. It said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.