Chelsea Handler. Photo: YouTube screenshot.
Several women interrupted Chelsea Handler’s comedy show in Richmond, Virginia, on Friday night in a coordinated effort to protest the Jewish comedian’s support for Israel since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The incident took place at Handler’s show Little Big Bit**h at the Altria Theater. In a video that was shared on social media, one female audience member at the show stood up and shouted at Handler, “Murder. Mass Murder.” The pro-Israel comedian first replied, “I can’t hear you,” before adding, “Oh, honey, please. This is not what this night is for.” She then asked security guards to remove the protester from the audience.
Female demonstrators in the audience also yelled “Palestinian babies — you’re a genocide supporter” and “Free Palestine.” Some audience members who got frustrated by the show’s interruption helped authorities identify the protesters and were told by one of the activists, “You guys should be this angry about genocide, not people standing up.”
“Be angry about genocide and people dying — children are dying with our tax dollars,” shouted the same protester, referring to the US providing aid to Israel amid its war against Hamas terrorists controlling the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. After an audience member answered, “They should die,” the female protester replied, “They should die? Say that on camera.”
One protester was arrested by police and can be seen in the video being escorted away from the show in handcuffs. Handler also told the protesters, “Do you know that I’ve been on tour for a year and a half and this is the only city two people stand up? You guys really owe me an apology.”
The protesters appeared to be associated with the organization Here 4 The Kids, which said in an Instagram post that the demonstrators on Friday night “forced other white people to confront our American complicity in GENOCIDE, begging them to no longer remain silent after 195 days of massacre.”
“These are protestors who are AGAINST the indiscriminate slaughter of human beings,” the organization added, before telling Handler: “YOU owe Palestinians an apology. YOU owe every single orphaned Palestinian child AN APOLOGY. YOU owe HUMANITY an apology. Demand a Free Palestine.”
Handler said in 2022 that she stands with the Jewish community in its fight against antisemitism and in February of this year filmed a video with Israeli activist Noa Tishby to address misinformation being spread about Israel during the ongoing war in Gaza. She said in the clip that she is “pro-Palestinian and anti-Hamas, and it is OK to question Israel’s policies and still be pro-Israel.” She also called Israel “our greatest defense in the Middle East for all of Western democracy and Western values.”
Although Handler has been critical of Israel over the years, she joined hundreds of celebrities in signing on open letter in October that thanked US President Joe Biden for supporting Israel after it launched a war targeting Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The open letter also called on Biden to “not rest until all hostages are released.” Days after the Oct. 7 attacks, Handler, condemned Hamas and its “barbarism” in a statement.
