Israeli-American Council

None of this was a surprise.

It was just that the Israeli American Council got together and were like, we need to start a petition.

And yeah, and it gets louder and it gets more divisive and there's no handling it now.

Now is the bit where they're just going to write it out.

Macklemore had been removed after stadium comments about free Palestine and on the occupied West Bank on top of an older 2014 costume controversy.

The Israeli-American Council called for his removal.

Now, the reporting is citing that venues and reporters, including Robert Kraft, are threatening to block shows.

The openers for Ed Sheeran, like Phineas, Lucas Graham, and Aaron Rowe, plus band Bioga, quit.

So you might as well choose the side, which is the guy side, obviously.

If you're standing alongside Rachel, Miss Rachel, I'm but catch a bubble with your mouth.

So the Israeli-American Council called for Macklemore's removal, and then this video from way back in 2014 where Macklemore was doing the Jew face thing with the big nose and the hair and all that stuff, and I think wearing a kippah, which was, again, more than 10 years ago, but it's been brought up and started to go viral again, so... here's the thing you can despise macklemore's politics and i do um and then you can still notice how fast a supporting act can become a liability when a stadium capital gets nervous and wonder if uh you know there isn't a free speech issue involved and when we talk about free speech i know what my friends are going to say It's a private company, it can do what it wants.

Okay, yes, the free speech, the First Amendment is what we're talking about when we talk about freedom of speech from government.

Free Palestine.

so that was you can see how many people were in the audience and in that stadium and you can hear people cheering and the following night macklemore at another venue explicitly addressed jewish audience members explaining that opposing israel's actions apartheid and genocide was not an attack on them he said my message is for peace love for all human beings to be treated with dignity respect and equality But this message of peace, love, and equality prompted the Israeli-American Council, a lobby group funded by Zionist megadonors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, to launch a petition demanding Macklemore's removal from Ed Sheeran's tour.

The anti-Palestinian outfit Stop Antisemitism attacked his performance, and the pop star Pink amplified the criticism and online rage from pro-Israel quarters.

The role of the Anti-Defamation League, another major Israel lobby group, was also significant.

But then it did draw criticism from some Jewish groups.

The, um, Israeli American Council launched a petition which actually called for the removal of Macklemore from Sheeran's lineup.

Then it became bigger when, which probably surprised some people, but the pop star Pink retweeted the criticism of Macklemore.

She basically amplified what had been an onstage speech, and then it pretty much picked up from there.