Pink has spoken out in a lengthy essay following backlash to her reposting of criticism of rapper Macklemore’s ‘Free Palestine’ speech.
In her post, she vowed to ‘keep speaking out’ and declared that she won’t take ‘being portrayed as the villain quietly’.
Last weekend, the Same Love hitmaker, real name Ben Haggerty, opened for Ed Sheeran’s tour in New Jersey and used his set to speak on Israel and Palestine. He later shared a video of the moment with the caption, ‘Wanting all humans to be treated equal should never be controversial’.
Afterwards, Pink, real name Alecia Beth Moore-Hart, reposted text from @Stop_AntiSemitism on her Instagram Story, without adding her own comments.
The post read: ‘Awful – Jewish fans bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran sing last night in NJ, not to be ambushed by Macklemore’s anti-Israel propaganda. Instead, Macklemore walked onstage in a keffiyeh, shouted “Free Palestine,” accused Israel of a false “genocide,” and turned a mainstream event into a political nightmare against the Jewish state. Concert goers are owed apologies and refunds @teddysphotos – this is unacceptable.’
At the same time, the Israeli-American Council launched a petition, calling for Sheeran to remove the Hinds Hall musician from the remainder of the tour. Macklemore’s lyrics to the 2024 protest tune condemn Israel’s military action in Gaza.
While Pink did not explicitly respond to the noise surrounding the matter, she did repost several memes and quotes on her page, hinting at her mindset.
Now, she has broken her silence, admitting that it ‘isn’t like [her]’ to be quiet.
Taking to social media this evening, the 47-year-old Grammy winner began: ‘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.’
She argued that ‘a repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine’, admitting that ‘social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it’.
‘But I’d rather be disagreed with for what I actually said than hated for what anybody else wrote, so let me say it.’
She went on: ‘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. But let me fill it in… myself.’
Her 1,000+ word essay then stated that she ‘doesn’t speak for Israel or for any government’. Referring to comments from 2023, she reiterated her stance that ‘Palestinians deserve a future that honours their humanity and their aspirations’.
Macklemore’s speech in full
‘I’ve been trying to figure out a way to say this all day. One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine.
‘I said, Free Palestine.
‘I want those words to be loud and clear, so the people from Gaza, all the way to the occupied West Bank, know that we have not forgotten them.
‘And this next song was inspired by the bravery of Columbia University students who led an encampment movement that mobilised the entire world; open up hearts, myself included, so thank you to those students that risked their diplomas, that risked their tuition, that risked their scholarships, that stood up and said, no. CUAD students, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peace. Thank you, guys.
‘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 organisation, ICE. None of us will be free until we are all free.’
Having been a UNICEF ambassador for a decade and visited war-stricken countries, she said ‘protecting innocent life comes first, everywhere, and nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child’.
‘I’m not going to litigate a complex war in an Instagram caption, and I’m not going to recite anybody’s slogan to earn back a follower.’
Explaining what she was truly ‘reacting to’ with her original reposts, she recalled attending the 2014 Grammy Awards when Macklemore performed. She cheered to his LGBTQ+ anthem, ‘no questions asked’.
However, she said that, four months later, ‘Macklemore put on a hooked nose, a black beard and a bowl cut, performed in it, and called it a “random costume”.’
‘Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was. The same love, it turned out, had a guest list, and we weren’t on it,’ she noted, referring to the public outrage and antisemitism accusations Macklemore sparked with his attire at a surprise concert in Seattle, due to it appearing a caricature of Jewish people.
He initially defended the outfit as ‘random’ but did later apologise for not foreseeing its interpretation. Pink then ‘let it go’, admitting, ‘because that’s what we do. We let it go’.
‘Then last weekend,’ she went on, ‘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.’
In part of his speech to the crowd last weekend, Macklemore addressed ‘all of [his] Jewish brothers and sisters’ directly, insisting that his ‘criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you’.
Pink added that her feelings on his remarks prompted her reposting activity.
‘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,’ she claimed. ‘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?’
Her caption also responded to critics as she asked, ‘Please don’t talk to me like I’ve never stood up for my beliefs when it was unpopular,’ citing her activism via songs such as Dear Mr. President, anti-war views, and LGBTQ+ support, despite ‘what it costs’.
‘And now I’m standing up for my own people, and I thought I knew going in how lonely that would be. And it’s lonelier than that. But I’m doing it anyway,’ she stated.
The performer concluded by explaining she has noticed a ‘change’ in her comments, with people who ‘couldn’t tell you the details of what [she] believes’ starting to ‘put words in her mouth’.
‘But I’ve been portrayed as the villain before. I can take it. I just won’t take it quietly, and I’m not going to teach my kids to.’
She then told those who are ‘furious’ with her that they ‘don’t have to agree’, calling it an ‘unspoken agreement for 25 years’.
‘You don’t have to agree with one thing Israel’s government does to not want the Jewish family two rows down from you to be scared or targeted at a concert. That’s the only thing I’m asking anybody for. 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 said.
‘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.’
Earlier this week, Macklemore said that the speech he gave on stage was not intended as an attack on the Jewish community after being criticised in the petition for ‘using the stage to deliver an extended political message’, performing Hinds Hall while Gaza images were displayed.
The council said the concert was ‘not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event’.
Sheeran himself did not publicly address the calls for his tour opener to be dropped.
Reps for Macklemore have been contacted for comment.