AMERICAN rapper Macklemore has said he will donate the $1m he earned as part of Ed Sheeran's North American tour to charities helping Palestinians.
The artist, real name Ben Haggerty, claimed he was axed from the Loop tour after stadium owners gave Sheeran an ultimatum that if Macklemore stayed, future shows would not go ahead at their venues.
Macklemore, who regularly expresses his pride in his Irish roots, has also urged Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft to match his donation.
"With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours, I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom," said Macklemore this evening.
Solidarity
The furore unfolded after Macklemore expressed his support for the Palestinian people during a show at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium earlier this month and said to the crowd, 'Free Palestine'.
That led to anger from groups including the Israeli-American Council and StopAntisemitism.
In a statement on Monday, Macklemore said 'Sheeran and his team' had made the decision to remove him under pressure from Kraft and other stadium owners.
Sheeran has since said the decision to remove his friend from the tour was taken by promoters and venues.
Gillette Stadium owner Kraft, the multi-billionaire CEO of the Kraft Group, said he felt a 'line had been crossed' by the rapper.
He added that the decision to remove the star was 'not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf'.
"I agree with Macklemore," he added.
"Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate.
"Over many decades, I have directed resources to Palestine and created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect.
"Standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism and hate should not be mutually exclusive."
He added: "I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same — peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate."
'A Palestinian life is no less valuable'
Macklemore has now urged Kraft to make good on his claimed support for Palestine by asking him to match his $1m donation to charities helping Palestinian civilians.
"I will be donating the entire $1m of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour to six organisations working directly to support the Palestinian people," he said tonight.
"And 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.
"That is what this has always been about. Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy. It is about Palestinians' right to freedom, dignity and safety in their own homeland.
"I want to center the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them, and the physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in.
"I want to center the organizers and activists who have paid real costs for standing with Palestine. Their risk is of a far different order than mine.
"Just yesterday, 15-year-old Muhammad al Zinati was killed in an Israeli strike while rushing to help aid worker Sherif Lubbad, who had already been injured.
"He was a child. Both were murdered. Both should be alive.
"And the ones still under the rubble, whose names exist only in the memories of people who may not have survived to speak them.
"Writing a check is one of the least costly forms of solidarity available to me. I am doing it because I can, and because these organizations are doing the work while much of the world debates it.
"But aid alone cannot address the conditions that make it necessary. This is a manmade 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.
"When the news cycle moves on, which it will, don't move with it. Free Palestine."
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