Javier Bardem shares petition to remove Pink as UNICEF ambassador over Macklemore Palestine row

Javier Bardem has shared a petition calling for Pink to be removed as a UNICEF ambassador over her response to Macklemore’s recent pro-Palestine comments.

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The actor re-shared several posts to his Instagram Stories on Monday (September 21) encouraging his followers to sign a Change.org petition asking UNICEF to remove the singer from the role.

The petition, which was launched on September 11 by a group calling itself Swifties Against Genocide, has now surpassed 179,000 signatures.

It argues that Pink’s recent comments are “incompatible with the role of a UNICEF Ambassador” and calls for the organisation to take “decisive action” by removing her.

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Pink has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2015, working in particular to raise awareness of the organisation’s global health and nutrition programmes for children.

The row began after Macklemore made an impassioned speech while supporting Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey earlier this month.

During shows on September 4 and 5, the rapper called for “all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality”, said he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know “they have not been forgotten”, and declared “Free Palestine” before performing his song ‘Hind’s Hall’ as footage from Gaza was shown on the screens behind him.

Pink subsequently shared an Instagram post from the group StopAntisemitism that criticised the set, describing Macklemore’s performance as “anti-Israel propaganda” and disputing his characterisation of Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

She later addressed the backlash at length, explaining that she did not agree with all of the language in the post she had shared.

“A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine,” she wrote. “Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it.”

Pink said her objection had not been to Macklemore saying “Free Palestine” or to his right to do so, and insisted she had not called for him to lose his place on the tour.

“I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now,” she said. “I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund.”

Macklemore subsequently defended his New Jersey speech, saying: “Wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial.”

The Israeli-American Council separately called for him to be removed from Sheeran’s tour, claiming that he had used the concerts to “advance a one-sided political agenda”.

Macklemore was later dropped from the remaining shows, with Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft saying that he found the rapper’s comments “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”.

Sheeran later said he was “not complicit” in the decision, saying that the final call was made by promoter Messina Touring Group after venues objected to Macklemore appearing. All of the remaining support acts and Sheeran’s backing band subsequently withdrew from the tour in response to Macklemore being dropped.

Macklemore later pledged his entire $1million earnings from the tour to six organisations providing support to Palestinians, while Kraft said Sheeran had asked him to match a $2million humanitarian contribution.

Bardem, meanwhile, has repeatedly used his public platform to speak in support of Palestinians.

Last year, he was among thousands of film workers to sign a Film Workers For Palestine pledge not to work with Israeli film institutions the group said were implicated in the war in Gaza.

He subsequently clarified that the boycott was intended to hold “companies and institutions” accountable rather than Israeli individuals, saying: “We do not discriminate against any person based on their nationality, race, religion, or gender.”

At the 2026 Oscars, Bardem declared “no to war and free Palestine” while presenting Best International Film, and argued that people in the movie industry should also act as citizens who use their platforms to “denounce injustice”.

He continued to speak about the issue at Cannes in May, where he said those in Hollywood who sought to blacklist actors for speaking in support of Palestine would “be exposed”.