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Last week, Macklemore<\/a> said that he had been ousted<\/a> as an opener on the U.S. leg of Ed Sheeran<\/a>\u2019s Loop tour after calling for a free Palestine onstage. Now, the rapper has pledged to donate $1 million of his net earnings from the tour to six organizations supporting Palestinian aid. \u201cI want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom,\u201d Macklemore said on Instagram.<\/p>\n The Ben<\/em><\/a> artist also invited New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft to match his donation, which will be split between HEAL Palestine<\/a>, Gaza Soup Kitchen<\/a>, American Near East Refugee Aid<\/a>, Medical Aid for Palestinians<\/a>, and the UNRWA U.S.A. National Committee<\/a>. Macklemore has accused Kraft of pressuring Sheeran into removing him from the tour by threatening to pull his shows at Gillette otherwise, and encouraging other venue owners to do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,\u201d Macklemore\u2019s statement continued. \u201cA Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth. That is what this has always been about.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement to NBC New<\/em>s, Kraft confirmed he was involved in kicking Macklemore off the tour. \u201cBased on Macklemore\u2019s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran\u2019s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply hurtful offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Sheeran detailed his own version of events in his own statement, claiming that the choice to kick Macklemore off the tour \u201cwas the promoter\u2019s decision, it was not mine.\u201d He wrote: \u201cI am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn\u2019t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Macklemore announced his removal from the run, the remaining three opening acts on the tour\u2014Finneas<\/a>, Lukas Graham<\/a>, and Aaron Rowe<\/a>\u2014and Sheeran\u2019s backing band, Beoga<\/a>, have all pulled out<\/a> in solidarity. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)\u2014a founding organization involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) initiative\u2014has also called on<\/a> Sheeran to cancel his tour completely.<\/p>\n Read Macklemore\u2019s full statement below.<\/p>\n With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours, I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom.<\/p>\n I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran\u2019s Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people. And I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation. Whatever 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.<\/p>\n That is what this has always been about. Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy. It is about Palestinians right to freedom, dignity, and safety in their own homeland.<\/p>\n I want to center the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them, and the physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in. I want to center the organizers and activists who have paid real costs for standing with Palestine. Their risk is of a far different order than mine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n