Dave Chappelle Says Alleged Boston Remarks On Israel-Hamas Are “Hearsay”

Comedian Dave Chappelle used a tour stop in North Carolina on Wednesday to claim reports on what he allegedly said about the Israel-Hamas conflict last weekend in Boston were all “hearsay.”

“Right now, I’m in trouble because the Jewish community is upset,” Chappelle said at his North Carolina show, according to the New York Times. “But I cannot express this enough: No matter what you read about that show in Boston, you will never see quotation marks around anything I said. They don’t know what I said.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that audience members walked out of Chappelle’s show in Boston when he brought up the Middle East.

“The other night, I said something about Palestine in Boston and got misquoted all over the world,” the comedian said. “And I will not repeat what I said.”

A woman in the audience shouted, “Free Palestine” in response, the Times reported.

“Please, please, miss,” he said. “Listen. Don’t start it up or I’m going to be in the news cycle for another week. This thing that’s happening in the Middle East is bigger than everybody.”

He called the situation in Israel a “nightmare,” but added, “what’s happening in Palestine is a nightmare.”

“There’s only two kinds of people in the world: people who love other people and the people that have things to make them afraid to love other people. Pray for everyone in Israel. Pray for everyone in Palestine,” he said, the Times reported.

Chappelle does not allow phones at his shows, so there is no audio/visual record of the Boston show.