U.S. rapper Macklemore announced that he will donate all $1 million in net proceeds from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations supporting Palestinians.
Macklemore also called on New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to make a donation of the same amount. He said people with differing views could agree that the lives of Palestinians must be protected.
The decision was announced days after Macklemore was removed from Sheeran’s tour over his pro-Palestinian statements. Kraft confirmed that he had pressured Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the tour and alleged that the rapper had a “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.”
Kraft also barred Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium, which is owned by the Patriots. Macklemore said the donation was not about him or the tour controversy, drawing attention instead to parents taking their children to hospitals lacking basic medical supplies, as well as doctors, medical workers, journalists and aid workers continuing to carry out their duties.
The rapper also honored Muhammad al-Zinati, a young Palestinian man whom he said was killed in an Israeli attack while trying to help the wounded a day earlier. Macklemore said al-Zinati was a child and that both deaths should have been prevented.
Macklemore argued that the aid being provided could not, by itself, change the conditions that had left Palestinians in need of assistance. Describing those conditions as an injustice created by people, the rapper said urgent political change was needed and that Palestinians should not have to wait any longer for freedom.
Earlier this month, Macklemore shouted “Free Palestine” and performed his protest song “Hind’s Hall” at a concert with Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. He later announced that he had been removed from Sheeran’s U.S. tour.
Macklemore, who said he had been friends with Sheeran for 13 years, said Sheeran told him that Kraft had organized a boycott among other stadium owners if Macklemore was not removed from the tour.
Sheeran said the decision to remove Macklemore had been made by the stadiums and organizers, not by him. He said he had personal views but preferred not to express them publicly, adding that he wanted his platform to remain a safe space rather than become a political forum.
