Rapper Macklemore is a vocal supporter of Palestine and Gaza residents. During a recent concert at MetLife Stadium, he yelled “Free Palestine!” onstage, projected images of devastation in the area, and performed protest song “Hind’s Hall.”
Now, it seems that American venues are not willing to play ball with the Seattle artist, and he has been dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour.
“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,” according to Messina Touring Group, the promoter of Loop Tour. This news follows backlash from organizations like StopAntisemitism and others, such as pop star Pink.
It’s really upsetting when people equate human rights support with antisemitism.
Human rights support does not mean anti-Israel.
Being against genocide and being for human rights and supporting Israel’s ability to defend itself against Hamas and also saying Israel is committing human rights violations are not logically inconsistent positions.
It does bother me when support for Gazans treads into the realm of antisemitism, that does sometimes happen, antisemitism is increasing and is awful, and also, there’s no indication that I see that Macklemore was being antisemitic.
Pink mentioned in her response he once had a Same Love performance in which he was making fun of Jewish people. I haven’t seen that, I can’t find it online, and I don’t know if seeing it would make a difference in my view of this.