Macklemore is donating $1 million of his earnings from supporting Ed Sheeran‘s Loop Tour to Palestinian relief funds and is urging Robert Kraft, among other stadium owners hosting the Thinking Out Loud singer’s tour, to follow suit.
Macklemore said Wednesday in an Instagram post that he wants to “bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people,” and will be donating the entirety of his $1 million net earnings from Sheeran’s tour to organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people.
“I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation. Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth,” his statement reads.
The rapper was dismissed from Ed Sheeran’s tour Monday, 10 days after he said “Free Palestine” and that the people of Gaza and the “occupied West Bank” had not been forgotten while on stage at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sept. 4, before performing his song Hind’s Hall, about pro-Palestinian demonstrators at Columbia.
Sheeran confirmed his removal came after Robert Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium, where the British singer is scheduled to perform on Sept. 25, and other owners said they would not allow the shows to happen if Macklemore was present.
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Macklemore said earlier this week that Sheeran had informed him Kraft and several other venue owners had rallied together to give Sheeran an ultimatum. “If Macklemore stays on tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues,” he wrote.
Sheeran said Tuesday that he had been involved in talks with various parties, including Kraft, to try and “build a bridge,” but that the venue and the promoter’s decision was “final.”
In a statement released shortly after Macklemore pledged $1 million, Kraft, who also owns the New England Patriots NFL franchise, said he was contacted by Sheeran, who asked him to make a $2 million donation to “aid in the region.”
In the statement, Kraft said he was asked to match a $2 million endowment he said Sheeran was making.
The singer has not announced if he has donated funds, or to whom.
Macklemore’s donation comes a day after all of Sheeran’s remaining support acts dropped out of the tour, citing solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Kraft said Sheeran is reaching out to other venues to “continue to work together to build bridges.”
“In addition, I’d like the people who are speaking in support of the Palestinian people to know that for decades, I have supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians and have brought young Palestinians and Israelis together to build businesses, create jobs and forge relationships,” his statement continued.
In a separate statement on Monday, Kraft said the decision to cancel Macklemore was a result of his recent comments “and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”
“This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf. Their pain and loss are real.”
In 2014, Macklemore appeared on stage wearing a black beard, wig and prosthetic nose at a show in Seattle, which Jewish activist groups said at the time resembled an antisemitic caricature of an Orthodox Jew.
Macklemore later apologized for his attire, saying, “I acknowledge how the costume could, within a context of stereotyping, be ascribed to a Jewish caricature,” he wrote.
“I am here to say that it was absolutely not my intention and unfortunately at the time I did not foresee the costume to be viewed in such regard.”
— with files from the Associated Press
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