Macklemore Is Donating His $1 Million Ed Sheeran Tour Earnings To Palestinian Support Organizations

It’s been a wild week for Macklemore. First, he was booted off Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop Tour for making “Free Palestine” speeches at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey earlier this month, and then he watched as all of his fellow support acts—Lukas Graham, FINNEAS, and Aaron Rowe—dropped off the tour in solidarity. Now, Macklemore has posted an IG statement in which he’s pledged to donate $1 million, his net earnings from the Sheeran tour, to six organizations providing support to people in Palestine.

“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,” Macklemore wrote.

The Seattle rapper also invited New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who barred Macklemore from performing with Sheeran at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts later this month, to match the donation.

“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,” Macklemore wrote. “A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.”

He ended by commenting on the media whirlwind that’s accompanied his dismissal from the tour.

“When the news cycle moves on, which it will, don’t move with it,” he wrote. “Free Palestine.”