‘Get the Party Started‘ hitmaker Pink kickstarted a firestorm of controversy recently following her open detraction of Macklemore‘s headline-grabbing pro-Palestine speech after he took to Ed Sheeran‘s ‘Loop Tour’ to declare his stance on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict (as reported here).
“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 told the concert crowd at the time.
Pink’s subsequent, indirect weigh-in on the hot topic landed her in hot water with fans – many of whom slammed her for taking a seemingly anti-Palestinian stance.
To clear the air after a week of jeers, the 3-time GRAMMY winner took to social media to address detractors and open up about the impact of the backlash.
View this post on Instagram
The Pop diva (born Alecia Moore) took to Instagram on Friday (September 11) to offer a candid reflection on the blowback for expressing her views on Macklemore’s controversial plea for Palestine.
“I’ve been quiet in my own words for a week, which you know isn’t like me. So here they are,” she started the 1300-word response before later sharing, “Of course I don’t speak for Israel, or for any government. I never have. What I said in October 2023 is still exactly what I believe: 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.”
Elsewhere in the lengthy post, Moore was sure to assert her views were not personally against Macklemore despite his history of alleged antiSemitism.
“Macklemore [once] 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…But he apologized, and I let it go, because that’s what we do. We let it go,” she said ahead of saying, “…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.”
The ‘Just Give Me a Reason’ singer made clear the reason for her passion on the topic stems from her support of world peace via her longtime partnership with UNICEF as well as her heritage.
“I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it,” she shared. “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.”
All-in-all, Pink is standing on her words and refusing to apologize.
“…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 said before concluding, “So, to the ones who are furious with me: you don’t have to agree with me. You never did. That’s been our unspoken agreement for twenty-five years, and it still stands, and so do I. 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…I’ll keep speaking out, in my own words.”
At writing, Macklemore has not publicly responded to Pink’s lengthy statement.
