Pink addressed the backlash she received after she shared an Instagram post that criticized Macklemore’s calls to “free Palestine” during an opening performance on Ed Sheeran’s North American tour.
On Friday last week (Sept. 4), Macklemore took to the
stage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Wearing a kaffiyeh, the rapper addressed the thousands in the crowd. “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,” Macklemore said. “I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.”
Macklemore was met with swift calls to have him removed from the tour. In one post, which Pink reshared on Instagram, the StopAntisemitism account accused Macklemore of ambushing fans at Sheeran’s concert with “anti-Israel propaganda” and said the artist had “accused Israel of a false ‘genocide.'” Per Stereogum, the post called for Macklemore to issue an apology and for ticketholders to be refunded.
In turn, Pink received backlash following her repost. Pink responded to the criticism on Friday (Sept. 11) with a lengthy explanation on social media on why she felt compelled to share the post calling for Macklemore to apologize and why his actions last week alarmed her.
“Last Sunday I reposted somebody else’s post about Macklemore’s set at Ed Sheeran’s show. It said things in words I didn’t write, and I wouldn’t have chosen all of them. Then the comments came, and I did what I do when I’m hurt, which is post snarky memes and act like I’m fine. That’s on me,” wrote Pink. “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 continued, “I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it. And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word ‘Jew’ were apparently enough to fill in the rest.” Pink said that she has never spoken for “Israel, or for any government” and that she still believes “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations. Protecting innocent life comes first, everywhere, and nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child. Anybody’s child.”
The singer pointed to her “decade as a UNICEF ambassador for kids who didn’t choose the country or the war they were born into” and that she “didn’t do it from behind a screen; I went to those children and held them.”
Her three-part statement continued into the comment section of her post. Pink explained that her feelings about Macklemore have changed throughout his career from when he performed “Same Love” at the 2014 Grammys and 33 couples married on air to when months later, he performed in a costume that was widely interpreted as a a Jewish caricature. (Macklemore later apologized to those offended by the costume, which many said was anti-Semitic.)
“I let it go, because that’s what we do. We let it go,” wrote Pink. “Then last weekend he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them. You don’t get to decide that for us.”
Pink continued, “That’s what prompted my repost. Not ‘Free Palestine,’ and not anyone’s right to say it. I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”
Pink directly addressed the “ones who are furious with me” and said, “you don’t have to agree with me.” “To the ones who are frightened this week, Jewish or Muslim or Palestinian or Israeli or just tired of all of it: I see you,” she wrote. “And if anybody wants to really know what I think, just ask me. I’m right here. I’ve never been hard to find. And I’ll keep speaking out, in my own words.”
Pink ended her message by recognizing that it was the 25th anniversary of September 11th, and that “at sundown, for Jews, it’s Rosh Hashanah, our New Year,” before signing off, “Shana tova.”
Read Pink’s full statement here.
Amid the controversy, Macklemore reposted his speech during last week’s concert, in which he says, “To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality … So I say free Palestine, I say free Lebanon, I say free Cuba, I say free Congo, free Sudan, I say free all people in America living in fear of this terrorist organization, ICE. None of us will be free until we are all free.”
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