US rapper Macklemore has said he plans to donate his $1 million (about €870,000) earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour to Palestinian organisations, after he was pulled from the tour for publicly expressing support for Palestine.
All of the support acts due to take part in the North American leg of the tour – including Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, Sheeran’s touring band – have dropped out in solidarity with Macklemore.
The rapper on Wednesday said he wanted to “bring the conversation back where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom”.
In a post on social media he said he will be donating “the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour” to six organisations “working directly to support the Palestinian people”.
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Macklemore invited Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots who called for him to be removed from the tour, to “match” his donation to groups supporting people in Palestine.
“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.”
Responding to this, Kraft said Sheeran had also asked him to donate to organisations “in the region” but did not specify which ones.
“Earlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis,” he said in a statement.
“Ed now plans to reach out to other venue owners and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.”
Macklemore said donating the money was “one of the least costly forms of solidarity available to me”.
The musician added that “aid alone cannot address the conditions that make it necessary”.
“This is a man-made injustice, and I believe it requires immediate political change. Palestinians have lived for decades without basic rights and should not have to wait another day to be free.
“That is where my focus will remain. I will continue to stand with the Palestinian people and their fight for liberation,” a statement said.
The controversy began when the rapper, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, said during a concert in New Jersey on September 4th that he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten, telling the crowd: “Free Palestine.”
Following his comments, a petition was launched demanding he be removed from the remaining dates of the tour.
Macklemore said Kraft, whose company owns the Gillette Stadium in Boston that Sheeran is due to play in later this month, had contacted Sheeran to say he would not be able to play there unless Macklemore was removed from the tour.
An earlier statement from Kraft defended his position, describing Macklemore’s comments as “hate speech” and accusing the rapper of “a broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.
Kraft said the rapper’s participation in gigs at the stadium on September 25th and 26th would cross a line.
[ Ed Sheeran controversy: How his North American tour has ended up in crisisOpens in new window ]
In a separate statement on Tuesday, Sheeran said: “Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.”
While Sheeran said he was “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and that the “suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy”, he also attempted to explain his decision to keep political issues at arm’s length.
“I am not complicit,” he wrote. “I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
Sheeran has faced much criticism in the last 24 hours, losing more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.
