Pink defends repost following controversy over Macklemore's pro Palestine comments

A performance by Macklemore as the opening act for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, has sparked an extensive public debate, one that even prompted Pink to speak out. On September 4 and 5, the rapper took the stage in front of thousands of concertgoers while wearing a keffiyeh. He told the crowd that one of his main reasons for joining the tour was to be able to say "Free Palestine" in major stadiums. He added that he wanted those words to reach Gaza and the occupied West Bank, so that people there would know they had not been forgotten. His speech was met with cheers from part of the audience, while others reportedly walked out.

Shortly after the shows, Pink shared a post on her Instagram Stories from the organization StopAntisemitism, which accused Macklemore of ambushing fans with what it described as anti Israel propaganda. The post also called for Macklemore to be removed from the remainder of the tour. Pink then faced a wave of criticism for sharing it, and initially responded with sarcastic memes. On Friday, September 11, she posted a lengthy three part statement on Instagram to explain her reasoning.

In her statement, Pink acknowledged that sharing someone else's post did not reflect her own words and that she would not have chosen every phrase herself. "A repost isn't a statement, and a meme isn't a spine. Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it," she wrote. She emphasized that she is Jewish, that she has never hidden that fact, and that people drew conclusions about her beliefs after the repost without asking her anything. At the same time, she made clear that she has never spoken on behalf of Israel or any government, and she repeated a position she said she had taken back in October 2023: she considers Hamas a terrorist organization, but Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and aspirations. "Nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child. Anybody's child," she quoted from her own statement.

Pink also referenced her more than ten years of work as a UNICEF ambassador, noting that she has personally visited and held children in war zones regardless of their nationality or the conflict they were caught up in. Along those lines, she refused to let social media pressure define her position. "I'm not going to litigate a complex war in an Instagram caption, and I'm not going to recite anybody's slogan to earn back a follower," she wrote.

A significant portion of her statement looked back at 2014, when Macklemore performed at the Grammys in a costume that many interpreted as an antisemitic caricature of a Jewish person. The rapper apologized at the time and said he respects all cultures and people. Pink wrote that she had let it go back then, but that his recent performance in New Jersey brought those memories back. She was particularly bothered by the fact that during the show Macklemore dedicated a song to a political movement while footage of the war played on the screens, and then told the Jewish audience members in the stadium that it was not about them. "You don't get to decide that for us," she wrote. She also clarified that her repost was not intended as an attack on the phrase "Free Palestine" or on anyone's right to say it, but came from the fear that the performance had stirred in her and people around her.

Macklemore stood by his position after the shows and wrote on X that a desire for equal treatment of all people should never be considered controversial. The Israeli American Council launched a petition to have him removed from the eight remaining US stadium shows he was set to open for Sheeran through early November. Pink closed her statement with a reference to the twenty fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, wishing her fellow believers a shana tova.