{"id":618463,"date":"2026-09-17T02:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/618463\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T02:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T02:16:14","slug":"macklemore-to-donate-1-million-from-ed-sheeran-tour-to-palestinian-charities-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/618463\/","title":{"rendered":"Macklemore to donate $1 million from Ed Sheeran tour to Palestinian charities \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US rapper Macklemore has said he plans to donate his $1 million (about \u20ac870,000) earnings from Ed Sheeran<\/a>\u2019s Loop tour to Palestinian organisations, after he was pulled from the tour for publicly expressing support for Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of the support acts due to take part in the North American leg of the tour \u2013 including Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, Sheeran\u2019s touring band<\/a> \u2013 have dropped out in solidarity with Macklemore. <\/p>\n

The rapper on Wednesday said he wanted to \u201cbring the conversation back where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media he said he will be donating \u201cthe entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran\u2019s Loop Tour\u201d to six organisations \u201cworking directly to support the Palestinian people\u201d. <\/p>\n

Macklemore invited Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots who called for him to be removed from the tour, to \u201cmatch\u201d his donation to groups supporting people in Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to this, Kraft said Sheeran had also asked him to donate to organisations \u201cin the region\u201d but did not specify which ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis,\u201d he said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEd now plans to reach out to other venue owners and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macklemore said donating the money was \u201cone of the least costly forms of solidarity available to me\u201d.<\/p>\n

The musician added that \u201caid alone cannot address the conditions that make it necessary\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a man-made 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is where my focus will remain. I will continue to stand with the Palestinian people and their fight for liberation,\u201d a statement said.<\/p>\n

The controversy began when the rapper, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, said during a concert in New Jersey on September 4th that he wanted people in Gaza<\/a> and the West Bank<\/a> to know they had not been forgotten, telling the crowd: \u201cFree Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following his comments, a petition was launched demanding he be removed from the remaining dates of the tour.<\/p>\n

Macklemore said Kraft, whose company owns the Gillette Stadium in Boston that Sheeran is due to play in later this month, had contacted Sheeran to say he would not be able to play there unless Macklemore was removed from the tour.<\/p>\n

An earlier statement from Kraft defended his position, describing Macklemore\u2019s comments as \u201chate speech\u201d and accusing the rapper of \u201ca broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kraft said the rapper\u2019s participation in gigs at the stadium on September 25th and 26th would cross a line.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ed Sheeran controversy: How his North American tour has ended up in crisisOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Sheeran said: \u201cMacklemore coming off tour was the promoter\u2019s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore\u2019s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Sheeran said he was \u201cappalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine<\/a>\u201d and that the \u201csuffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy\u201d, he also attempted to explain his decision to keep political issues at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not complicit,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t have them, and it doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheeran has faced much criticism in the last 24 hours, losing more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US rapper Macklemore has said he plans to donate his $1 million (about \u20ac870,000) earnings from Ed Sheeran\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4249,69,42,33778,43,48,40,38,41,39,77],"class_list":["post-618463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-gaza-strip","tag-headlines","tag-israel-hamas-conflict","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}