Rapper Macklemore dropped by Ed Sheeran's US tour for calling for a free Palestine

After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”Macklemore responded to the news on Instagram, saying he didn’t know what to say after hearing he had been dropped from the tour, so he was “going to speak from the heart and share the truth”.

The rapper said Sheeran was not the victim here — and neither was singer Pink, who criticised the rapper’s comments on Instagram earlier — the real victims were “the men, women and children [in Palestine] who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence.”Macklemore said Sheeran was a friend and nothing in his response was meant to “tear down his character”.

“But as I the phone, our friendship can’t change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.”The rapper explained that Sheeran had call from businessman Robert Kraft — the owner of Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, where the two were set to perform — saying the tour stop would not go ahead unless Macklemore was dropped.

Sheeran, he said, was in a difficult position, “His typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before.” Macklemore said he and the singer had a back and forth on the subject, but in the end the singer’s stance remained that he doesn’t “take sides”.

The rapper said he gets why someone wouldn’t take sides — it has its cost. “But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed.

When one side has the bombs and bottomless financial and military support from America, refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.”Macklemore said his advocacy on stage and Sheeran’s implicit support might have encouraged others to speak out, which is maybe why it was so important to “silence” him.

He also called out the weaponisation of antisemitism allegations, saying, “When criticising Israel, opposing Zionism or saying ‘Free Palestine’ gets conflated with hatred of the Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.”