U.S. rapper Macklemore announced that he will donate all of the $1 million in net proceeds he earned from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations supporting Palestinians.
Macklemore also called on New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to match the donation. The rapper said that, despite their differences, they could agree that Palestinian lives must be protected.
The decision to donate came 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 prevented Macklemore from performing at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium. Macklemore said the donation was not about him or the tour controversy, drawing attention instead to parents carrying their children to hospitals without basic medical supplies and to doctors, health workers, journalists and aid workers continuing to perform their duties.
Macklemore also referred to Muhammad al-Zinati, a Palestinian youth whom he said was killed in an Israeli attack the previous day while trying to help the wounded. He said al-Zinati was a child and that both deaths should have been prevented.
The rapper argued that the aid alone could not change the conditions that had left Palestinians in need of assistance. Calling those conditions a man-made injustice, Macklemore said urgent political change was needed and that Palestinians should not have to wait any longer for freedom.
Earlier this month, Macklemore performed with Sheeran at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where he shouted “Free Palestine” and performed his protest song “Hind’s Hall.” He then announced that he had been removed from Sheeran’s U.S. tour.
Macklemore said he had been friends with Sheeran for 13 years and that Sheeran had told him Kraft was organizing a boycott among other stadium owners if Macklemore was not removed from the tour.
Sheeran said the decision had not been made by him but by the tour’s stadiums and organizers. 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.
