American rapper Macklemore’s upcoming U.K. tour will benefit a group whose British spokesperson praised Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, hostage-taking as “legitimate” and “effective,” The Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.
Proceeds from the artist’s Oct. 30 concert at London’s 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena, managed by Live Nation, will support several organizations, including the Palestine Youth Movement. Jeanine Hourani, a U.K. spokesperson for the Palestine Youth Movement, previously defended the taking of hostages during the Oct. 7 atrocities, while the group itself has characterized the massacres as a “prison break.”
The Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) warned that funding the Palestine Youth Movement through his tour risks legitimizing violence against Jewish communities. The group urged Live Nation to reveal its vetting process and outline safety measures to protect Jewish staff and attendees from antisemitic incitement.
The controversy comes weeks after Macklemore, whose legal name is Benjamin Haggerty, was dropped as an opening act from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour following two September performances at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. During those shows, the rapper used his time on stage to declare “Free Palestine” and accuse Israel of genocide and apartheid—charges Jerusalem vehemently rejects as libelous.
Promoter Messina Touring Group dropped Haggerty after multiple venue owners—including Jewish philanthropist Robert Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium—notified promoters they would not permit him on the lineup. Following his removal, the Israeli-American Council praised the decision to spare audiences the rapper’s “antisemitic rants,” telling JNS: “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.”
In response to his removal from the U.S. tour, Haggerty announced the headlining “Macklemore & Friends—Free Palestine Tour.”
