Macklemore Donating $1 Million in Earnings from Ed Sheeran Tour to Palestine People

In a new statement, Macklemore says he will donate $1 million of his net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s “LOOP Tour” to six organizations supporting the Palestinian people. He also invited Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner who acknowledged leading a pressure campaign that resulted in Macklemore being removed from Sheeran’s tour following his pro-Palestine comments, to match the 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,” Macklemore wrote at the start of a statement posted to social media Wednesday afternoon.

“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,” he continued.

Inviting Kraft to join him in matching the donation, Macklemore added: “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.”

Macklemore stressed that “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,” and said his “focus will remain” standing with “the Palestinian people and their fight for liberation.”

Macklemore’s Statement:

“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.

“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 will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people. 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.

“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.

“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.”