Rapper Macklemore Pledges $1M Tour Earnings to Support Palestinian Organizations

Rapper Macklemore has announced that he will donate the entire $1m he earned from singer Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to organisations supporting Palestinians, just days after being removed from the tour over his stance on Palestine.

Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, shared the donation news on Instagram on Wednesday, confirming the funds will be distributed among six groups directly aiding Palestinians. He also challenged pro-Israel billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, to match the donation after Kraft verified on Tuesday that he had blocked Macklemore from performing at Gillette Stadium in the US state of Massachusetts.

“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,” Macklemore wrote. “A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.”

This development follows ongoing fallout from Macklemore’s removal from the tour. The rapper stated on Monday that he was cut from the remaining United States dates after using his set at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to voice support for Palestinians. In solidarity with Macklemore, all supporting acts for Ed Sheeran’s upcoming US Loop Tour have subsequently withdrawn. Several of these artists are Irish and cited their own nation's history of occupation as a factor in their choice to exit.

Ed Sheeran clarified that the choice to drop Macklemore was ultimately made by the tour promoter rather than himself. Meanwhile, Robert Kraft stated he opposed the rapper's performance, pointing to what he termed Macklemore’s history of “antisemitic rhetoric and imagery”. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Robert Kraft maintained that banning Macklemore from his venue was not about “diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians,” but asserted that advocacy should not impact the Jewish community or overshadow the responsibility of Hamas.

In his Wednesday statement, Macklemore expressed a desire to shift focus away from himself and the tour controversy. “That is what this has always been about. Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy,” he wrote. “It is about Palestinians’ right to freedom, dignity and safety in their own homeland.”

He also noted that financial contributions involve far less risk than the efforts undertaken by individuals in Gaza and those organizing pro-Palestinian support. “Writing a check is one of the least costly forms of solidarity available to me,” he wrote. “I am doing it because I can, and because these organizations are doing the work while much of the world debates it.”

He concluded with a message urging sustained awareness: “When the news cycle moves on, which it will, don’t move with it. Free Palestine.”