{"id":662767,"date":"2026-10-31T14:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662767\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T14:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T14:36:10","slug":"macklemore-says-he-was-unable-to-stay-silent-about-israel-palestine-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/662767\/","title":{"rendered":"Macklemore says he was unable to \u2018stay silent\u2019 about Israel-Palestine conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

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US rapper Macklemore said it was \u201cmore uncomfortable for me to stay silent than to say something\u201d as he took to the stage in London<\/a> for the latest stop of his Free Palestine tour.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, made the remarks during an emotional speech about his support for Palestine at his sold-out concert at the OVO Arena Wembley on Friday night.<\/p>\n

In videos from the show, Macklemore told the cheering crowd he had reached a point where he felt unable to remain silent about the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling and seeing the horrific, unimaginable catastrophe that was happening in front of our eyes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a certain point, it was more uncomfortable for me to stay silent than to say something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say, I don\u2019t believe that saying something is brave. I don\u2019t believe that saying something is courageous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that saying something is human.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose children in Gaza<\/a> are our children. There is no separation,\u201d he added, and was met with loud cheers from the crowd and chants of \u201cFree Palestine\u201d.<\/p>\n

Macklemore was joined onstage by supporters who echoed his sentiments, including singer Paloma Faith<\/a>, who spoke about motherhood and the value of every child\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old said: \u201cIt\u2019s scary to be in the public eye and to come out and say and stand up at these things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s not as scary as what would happen if we didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award-winning singer, who gave birth to her third child seven months ago, said she was concerned about politically aligning herself because she has \u201ca family to support\u201d.<\/p>\n

Faith said: \u201cBut I just thought: Why are my children more important than the children in Gaza, and Palestine, and Sudan, Yemen and Congo?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not more important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt breaks my heart to think that anyone thinks their children are more important than somebody else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery child deserves to have their mother hold them in their arms and say \u2018it\u2019s going to be safe\u2019. Right now, this world doesn\u2019t feel very safe for children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg<\/a> also appeared at the concert, delivering a speech about what more still needs to be done to support Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not for one second think that you have done enough by attending a benefit concert or by donating money, because the occupation will not end by philanthropy and slogans,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can change all the hearts and minds in the world, but that has to be paired with actual policy change in a way that actually challenges our extremely violent status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macklemore kicked off his Free Palestine tour in Dublin earlier this week, where he was joined by the likes of Hozier and Kneecap, before performing in Paris on Thursday alongside artists including Aurora and DJ Habibeats.<\/p>\n

The Grammy-winning musician previously said the gigs \u201csold out immediately\u201d after going on sale last month.<\/p>\n

The concerts were announced after Macklemore was dropped from the remaining US dates of Ed Sheeran\u2019s Loop tour following comments he made about Gaza.<\/p>\n

The shows aim to bring together artists and friends to help provide humanitarian aid and support for people in Palestine.<\/p>\n

All proceeds from the concerts will go towards a number of organisations working in support of Palestinian people, providing medical care, humanitarian assistance, education, community support and advocacy.<\/p>\n

Those organisations include Anera, Glia, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Taawon, Heal Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Middle East Children\u2019s Alliance, Jewish Voice for Peace, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Institute for Middle East Understanding, Palestine Children\u2019s Relief Fund and UNRWA USA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-662767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662767","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=662767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}