The goal, he wrote in a Wednesday post on social media, was to \u201cbring the conversation back to where it belongs\u201d \u2014 the Palestinian people \u2014 after a 48-hour period that saw four supporting acts quit in solidarity<\/a> and confusion over who held responsibility for the decision.<\/p>\n <\/a>Watch: Ed Sheeran addresses tour fallout after Macklemore dropped – Watch on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n The six donation recipients included Medical Aid for Palestinians, Palestine Children\u2019s Relief Fund and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. In addition to the funding windfall, their leaders welcomed the renewed public awareness of the perilous living conditions faced by the Palestinian people they treat regularly.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you don\u2019t see bombs falling every night, the rubble is still there,\u201d said Alicia Phillips Mandaville, the acting CEO of Anera, another beneficiary. \u201cAnd the traumatized children are still traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheeran says the promoters, not him, decided to drop the rapper from the tour over pro-Palestinian comments. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n Attention on continued pleas for help<\/p>\n Tareq Hailat, the director of strategic engagement at Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, said his phone rings \u201call the time\u201d with calls from people in Gaza \u201cbleeding and asking for help.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this notion that there\u2019s a ceasefire. But it\u2019s not true. There are children dying every single day. There\u2019s our team that is constantly in danger on the ground every single day. There\u2019s people we have to feed,” he said. “So to have this attention on it is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Israeli operations have killed more than 1000 Palestinians since a fragile ceasefire took effect last October. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians struggle to get healthcare in the West Bank. Palestinians say water shortages persist. The world\u2019s leading authority on food insecurity warned in July that most Gaza families still weren’t getting nearly enough to eat even as Israel allowed more aid.<\/p>\n The Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund medically evacuates children who can\u2019t get the care they need because of crumbling healthcare infrastructure and flies outside physicians in to treat others inside Gaza.<\/p>\n The nonprofit will put its share of Macklemore’s gift into an unrestricted fund, according to Hailat. The donation allows leaders to more fluidly direct money based on the evolving circumstances inside Gaza.<\/p>\n Anera \u2014 a humanitarian aid group working in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan \u2014 noted its donation also came with no requirements for how to use the money. Mandaville said that flexibility is important when \u201cthe way people live\u201d and \u201cthe rules we work inside” change on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s flooding again this year like there was last year, we can deal with that. If there is an acute hunger crisis again, like there has been in the past, we can meet that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can buy more blankets because people want their grandparents to be warm at night.\u201d<\/p>\n People walk past tents sheltering displaced Palestinians amid the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the war with Hamas, in Gaza City, Monday, August 17, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n Macklemore has long supported Palestinians<\/p>\n This week’s gift wasn’t the first time Macklemore has donated to some of the recipients.<\/p>\n The rapper has long advocated for the plight of Palestinians. He previously pledged the proceeds and streaming royalties from his protest anthems Hind’s Hall and Hind’s Hall 2 to UNRWA.<\/p>\n More than US$509,000 (NZ$883,000) in support has come through those royalties, according to UNRWA USA CEO Mara Kronenfeld.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has been contributing to saving probably hundreds of thousands of lives in Gaza through his contributions already,” she said.<\/p>\n This latest donation is already catalyzing more gifts. Ms. Rachel, a YouTube star and music teacher, announced Thursday that she would donate US$1 million to the Palestinian Children\u2019s Relief Fund and called on others to match the gift.<\/p>\n New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft \u2014 whose Kraft Group also owns Gillette Stadium, where Sheeran is scheduled to perform later this month \u2014 said in a Wednesday Instagram post that he would match Sheeran’s own US$2 million (NZ$3.4 million) donation for aid \u201cin the region.\u201d The post did not specify the gift\u2019s recipients.<\/p>\n Macklemore has said his removal was the result of an effort led by Kraft. Kraft said in a statement Monday that the decision to cancel Macklemore was a result of the rapper\u2019s recent comments \u201cand a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.\u201d Macklemore has asserted that criticism of the Israeli government should not be conflated with antisemitism.<\/p>\n Macklemore performs in Berlin in 2023 (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n Others inspired to donate<\/p>\n Everyday donors appear to be joining efforts like Ms. Rachel’s. Online progressive influencers have helped raise more than US$72,000 (NZ$124,000) more for the Palestinian Children\u2019s Relief Fund.<\/p>\n Anera reported that the donations it received Wednesday through social media platforms were more than triple this month’s daily average. The nonprofit has also gained more than 8000 followers since Macklemore tagged its account in his post. Mandaville hopes that exposure will introduce new, younger audiences to the nonprofit’s work.<\/p>\n \u201cI would guess that our traditional donor does not know the lyrics to \u2018Thrift Shop,\u2019\u201d she said, referencing Macklemore’s breakout 2012 hit.<\/p>\n UNRWA USA’s Kronenfeld said the spike reflects an existing trend. Her organization has gained 203,000 donors since October 2023, she said, allowing them to send more than US$117 million (NZ$203 million)<\/p>\n \u201cThe contributions keep coming in because Americans care,” she said. “It will increase that much more with Macklemore\u2019s extremely humane gesture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the Palestinian relief nonprofits behind a US$1 million (NZ$1.7 million) pledge from rapper Macklemore, the Grammy winner’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,14849,157,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-606409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-israel-gaza-conflict","tag-music","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/people-walk-past-tents-sheltering-displaced-palestinians-ami-T426645PIRDDNE3MYYWYLU5EM4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Macklemore](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/macklemore-performs-in-berlin-in-2023-PEEAPXGZPZBVFLXDI37GUQ7HPM.jpg\")
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