Macklemore’s upcoming UK tour is set to benefit an organization whose British spokesperson described Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, hostage-taking as “legitimate” and “effective,” The Jewish Chronicle reported Friday.
Proceeds from the rapper’s Oct. 30 performance at London’s 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena, operated by Live Nation, will be donated to several organizations, including the Palestine Youth Movement.
Jeanine Hourani, the Palestine Youth Movement’s UK spokesperson, previously defended the taking of hostages during the Oct. 7 atrocities. The organization has also described the massacres as a “prison break.”
The Jewish Leadership Council warned that directing tour proceeds to the Palestine Youth Movement could help legitimize violence against Jewish communities.
The group called on Live Nation to disclose how it vetted the beneficiaries and explain what safety measures will be implemented to protect Jewish staff members and concertgoers from antisemitic incitement.
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The dispute comes only weeks after Macklemore, whose legal name is Benjamin Haggerty, was removed as an opening act from Ed Sheeran’s US tour. The decision followed two September performances at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.
At those concerts, the rapper said “Free Palestine” from the stage and accused Israel of genocide and apartheid—allegations Jerusalem strongly rejects as libelous.
Messina Touring Group dropped Macklemore after several venue owners, including Jewish philanthropist Robert Kraft, the owner of Gillette Stadium, told promoters they would not allow him to remain on the lineup.
After the decision, the Israeli-American Council praised Macklemore’s removal, saying audiences had been spared the rapper’s “antisemitic rants.” In a statement to JNS, the council said: “The rapper may have a First Amendment right to traffic in Jew-hatred, but he does not have the right to peddle his poison on stage in front of tens of thousands of concertgoers.”
Macklemore responded to his removal from the US tour by announcing the headlining “Macklemore & Friends — Free Palestine Tour.”
