Pink had fallen silent in the face of backlash from many quarters following her reposting a call for Macklemore to be dropped from the Ed Sheeran tour in the wake of his nightly pro-Palestinian songs and statements. Now she has spoken up about the controversy and her part in it in a big way, with a 1,300-word social media post that has her exploring why she repeated the sentiments asking Sheeran to drop Macklemore, why his statements alarmed her as a Jewish woman, and how it has felt “lonely” facing an onslaught of criticism this week. The singer noted that she may have been a typical “cheap and fast” social media user when she first reposted the anti-Macklemore meme, rather than speaking up in her own words, which she is now belatedly doing.
The same love, it turned out, had a guest list, and we weren’t on it. But he apologized, and I let it go, because that’s what we do. We let it go.” Nonetheless, she suggested, his wearing of the costume informed how his statements might be received in years to come.
The singer said that “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.” She added: “You don’t get to decide that for us.” Her current position, as she explained it in her post: “Of course I don’t speak for Israel, or for any government. 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. I’ve spent a decade as a UNICEF ambassador for kids who didn’t choose the country or the war they were born into, and I have grieved every one of them, on both sides of that fence. I didn’t do it from behind a screen; I went to those children and held them.
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.” The singer declared that her response earlier this week was prompted not by Macklemore saying “Free Palestine,” but by his statements on stage — in response to the backlash he was facing from some quarters — that his statements were aimed at Israel, not all Jews. 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 pointed to some of the causes she has supported over the years that have drawn fire, mostly from the right wing. And now I’m standing up for my own people, and I thought I knew going in how lonely that would be.
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