By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES, Sept 24 (Reuters) - American rapper Macklemore, who was dropped as the opening act for Ed Sheeran over pro-Palestinian remarks, announced on Thursday he would headline his own "Free Palestine" concert tour that will start next month.
The tour will begin in Dublin, Paris and London, Macklemore said in an Instagram post. US dates and additional performers will be announced later, he said, adding that proceeds would be donated to organizations that support the Palestinian
people.
"Being apolitical during a genocide doesn't work anymore," he said. "People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it."
The Grammy-winning rapper had been due to perform at eight additional Sheeran shows when he was removed last month from the tour following remarks at a show in New Jersey.
"A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: 'Free Palestine,'" he said on stage.
Macklemore said owners of stadiums where Sheeran was set to play had objected to those remarks.
Israeli officials have strongly denied their actions in Gaza amount to genocide and say they are justified as self-defense.
Sheeran, an English-born singer-songwriter and one of the world's top-selling recording artists, said the decision to dump Macklemore came from tour organizers, not him, and that he tried to find a resolution. He apologized for his handling of the situation at a performance in Philadelphia and decried Israel's treatment of residents in Gaza as "unjustifiable."
Macklemore has been an outspoken critic of Israel's assault on Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank.
"If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it's that something has shifted over the last three years," Macklemore said on Thursday. "There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now."
"What happened to me is bigger than one artist or one stage," he added. "When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
