Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha blasted rapper Macklemore over his pro-Palestinian remarks during Ed Sheeran’s tour, which sparked backlash from Jewish and pro-Israel groups.
“People just want to hear good music,” Concha said Tuesday on Fox & Friends First. “They want a concert, they don’t want a campus protest. And many people pay good money to go to such a concert. And they don’t want to be told, also, by the way, that ICE is a terror organization.”
Macklemore was dropped from the remaining U.S. dates of Sheeran’s Loop tour after saying “free Palestine” onstage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
During a Sept. 4 speech, the rapper said he wanted people in Gaza and the “occupied West Bank” to know they had not been forgotten. His remarks prompted backlash and a petition from the Israeli American Council calling for his removal from the tour.
Macklemore issued a statement on Instagram announcing that he was dropped from Sheeran’s tour, after facing pushback from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft over Macklemore’s pro-Palestine stance. The Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore and Sheeran were slated to perform later this month.
Macklemore’s post emphasized his friendship with Sheeran and said his words in support of Palestinians during performances at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey are being twisted into accusations of antisemitism.
Sheeran “told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with,” Macklemore said. “I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood.”
Macklemore maintained that “antisemitism is real” but said that thinking support for Palestinians goes hand-in-hand with hatred of Jewish people “protects Israel from accountability.”
“Sounds almost like doubling down,” Concha said.
Concha praised Kraft for “standing up to this antisemite.”
Concha highlighted Macklemore’s controversial past, including a performance in 2014 where he took the stage wearing a bushy black beard, a dark wig, and a fake nose.
Pro-Israel groups said the costume resembled anti-Jewish caricatures. Macklemore said the resemblance was a coincidence.
“A fake witches nose, wig, and beard = random costume,” Macklemore said on the site then known as Twitter. “Not my idea of a stereotype of anybody.”
Concha said Macklemore spreading the word “genocide” in relation to the war in Gaza does not apply and related it to a quote from comedian Bill Maher.
“There were 3 million Jews in Poland before World War II,” Maher said Friday on Real Time with Bill Maher. “After? 45,000. That’s genocide.”
Maher brought up the definition of genocide: “the act of killing, or trying to kill, an entire people.”
“You can’t just change the definition of genocide to mean ‘counterattack in a war where people, including civilians, die,’” Maher said. “That’s every war. There have been about 73,000 deaths in Gaza, about 3% of the population. Tragic. Not genocide, not close.”
Concha said the population killed in Gaza is an “unfortunate product of war. A war, by the way, that Israel absolutely did not start on Oct. 7.”
Macklemore also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a “terrorist organization,” according to reporting from the Guardian.
The decision to remove Macklemore faced backlash from prominent figures, including YouTuber Ms. Rachel, who creates children’s programming.
UN WATCHDOG ACCUSES PALESTINIAN RELIEF AGENCY OF SHAMMING REFORMS PRESCRIBED FOLLOWING OCT. 7
“Ed Sheeran had an opportunity to show that we won’t be bullied into punishing people for supporting Palestine,” she said in a statement on Instagram. “Instead he caved to people who refuse to accept what the world knows. A genocide is happening in Gaza. We all need to speak out against it.”
“Think about people paying the money to see these concerts, and maybe they just don’t want to be lectured,” Concha said. “It’s really that simple, and I think Ms. Rachel, obviously, go back to entertaining kids.”