Macklemore is addressing the fallout from comments he made while opening for Ed Sheeran on Friday night at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he told the crowd he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten. "I believe that every human being walking on this earth deserves exactly the same freedom," he said during the set.
The remark drew a sharp response from the Israeli American Council, which released a petition calling for Macklemore to be pulled from the remaining dates of Sheeran's Loop tour. "This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event," the petition states. "The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where the line should be drawn when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda."
Macklemore responded on Saturday night, according to Newsweek, directly addressing Jewish fans in the audience. "To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you," he said. "My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality."
He went further in his remarks, broadening his call beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "So I say free Palestine, I say free Lebanon, I say free Cuba, I say free Congo, free Sudan, I say free all people in America living in fear of this terrorist organization, ICE," Macklemore said. "None of us will be free until we are all free."
As of now, the four-time Grammy winner remains attached to Sheeran's Loop tour, with the Israeli American Council's petition pushing for his removal still pending a response.
Photo: Microsoft, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
