“The audience was cheering Chappelle on during his tirade,” one posted on social media afterwards. “I was sick. We were sick. I turned to my friends and wife and said I think it is time to go.”
By Batya Jerenberg
Comedian David Chappelle blasted Israel at a performance Thursday, accusing the Jewish state of committing war crimes after a Hamas slaughter of 1,400 men, women and children October 7 set off a war to destroy the terrorist organization that holds the Gaza Strip in its iron grip, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
Chappelle began by criticizing the decision by some corporations to rescind job offers to students who voiced support for the Hamas massacres.
The comments divided the audience, with some shouting “Free Palestine,” with others calling out “What about Hamas?” while one told the comedian to “shut up.”
Chappelle then slammed the Jewish state for bombing Hamas targets and closing its borders to Gaza, not allowing in humanitarian supplies or fuel water after Jerusalem declared war.
Israel usually supplies the Gaza Strip with 10% of its water. During U.S. .President Joe Biden’s lightning solidarity visit to Jerusalem Wednesday, he pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume the water supply, and Jerusalem has acquiesced, sending in water to the southern portion of the enclave.
The IDF warned Gazans in the northern part to leave over a week ago for their own safety, signaling that this is where its ground troops may begin their counter-attack. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have left for the south in response, although Hamas is telling them to stay to be human shields.
Chappelle accused the White House of abetting the alleged massacre of Palestinian civilians since the U.S. is providing Israel with military supplies.
These also include anti-rocket interceptors for the Iron Dome system that is protecting the home front from the thousands of rockets that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are launching indiscriminately into Israelis towns and cities.
Although providing no evidence, Gaza health officials have claimed that more than 4,000 Palestinians have died in the Israeli air campaign on military targets in Gaza. It is uncertain how many civilians are among them, but Hamas is known for embedding its fighters, command posts, and rocket launchers within the civilian population, underneath and next to schools, mosques, and hospitals, as well as homes and shops, which is internationally recognized as a war crime.
The comedian, who has been accused of antisemitism before, also condemned the Hamas attack, but said that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Some audience members got up and left the show in protest.
“The audience was cheering Chappelle on during his tirade,” one posted on social media afterwards. “I was sick. We were sick. I turned to my friends and wife and said I think it is time to go.”
“We walked out and met up with many other Jews leaving the show. Never in my life have I felt so unsafe and so fearful of what I was witnessing,” he added.
In an odd twist, Chappelle told the paper through a spokesperson that he “denies being in Boston” that night even though his schedule lists the TD Garden Arena in the capital of Massachusetts for the date in question.
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