Rapper Macklemore announced Thursday that he will donate the net earnings from his tour with Ed Sheeran — a sum of $1 million — to six Palestinian organizations, escalating a public standoff that has engulfed one of the year’s biggest concert tours.
The announcement followed his removal from Sheeran’s Loop tour on Monday, days after he delivered a speech calling for a free Palestine. The decision triggered a wave of solidarity: by Tuesday, all of Sheeran’s other supporting acts had withdrawn from future shows in protest.
Shifting the Conversation ‘Back to Where It Was Supposed to Be’
In an Instagram post on Thursday, Macklemore said he wanted to redirect attention away from the controversy and toward the people at the center of the crisis.
“Back to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation and still fighting for their freedom,” he wrote.
He also issued a direct challenge to billionaire Robert Kraft, inviting him to match the donation. “Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,” Macklemore said.
Kraft’s Deep Ties to Israel
Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, has longstanding philanthropic ties to Israel. In 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented him with an award, saying, “Israel does not have a friend more loyal than Robert Kraft.”
According to Macklemore, Kraft had told Sheeran that the tour’s shows at his venue would not go ahead unless the rapper was dropped — a claim that places the businessman at the center of the decision to remove him.
A Call for Political Change, Not Just Aid
Macklemore said his speech and his stance were never about headlines or controversy, but about the rights of Palestinians to “freedom, dignity and safety in their own homeland.”
He said he wanted to draw attention to “the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them and physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in.”
The rapper described writing a cheque as one of the least costly ways for him to support the people of Palestine, noting that activists and organizers “have paid real costs for standing with Palestine.”
He added that aid alone was insufficient to address the crisis, calling the situation a “manmade injustice.” The true need, he said, was for “political change,” and Palestinians “should not have to wait another day” for basic rights.
The Six Recipient Organizations
In his post, Macklemore listed the organizations that will receive his tour earnings:
- Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund
- Heal Palestine
- Gaza Soup Kitchen
- Medical Aid Palestine
- UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees
- American Near East Refugee Aid
Kraft Responds With $2 Million Pledge
Kraft responded to Macklemore’s post with a statement shared on Gillette Stadium’s social media accounts, saying he had already agreed to make a donation — and so had Sheeran.
In the statement, Kraft said he had “dedicated much of my life to building bridges between all people” and that he “believed deeply that all lives are worth protecting.”
He said Sheeran had approached him earlier to match a donation of $2 million “to aid in the region,” and that he was happy to do so. The singer, he added, was now approaching other venue owners with the same proposal.
Kraft said he wanted those speaking out in favour of Palestine to know he had “supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians [and] brought young Palestinians and Israelis together to build businesses, create jobs and forge relationships” for decades.
Fallout Across the Tour
The pledges came amid an outcry from fans and the entertainment industry over Macklemore’s removal from the Loop tour.
Sheeran addressed the controversy on Tuesday, saying he did not use his professional platform for politics and that the decision to drop Macklemore was not his to make — those matters, he said, were handled by the tour’s promoters.
All of the singer’s supporting acts, including singer Finneas and the tour’s band Boega, decided to withdraw from future shows in solidarity with Macklemore.
