Rapper Macklemore has pledged the $1 million he earned from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to Palestinian support organizations, according to an Instagram post. Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, announced the donation on Wednesday, stating the money would go to six groups working directly with Palestinians. He also called on pro-Israel billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, to match the donation after Kraft barred him from performing at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.

Artist Withdraws From Tour in Solidarity

Following Macklemore’s removal from the tour over his support for Palestine, all four of Sheeran’s opening acts for the remaining Loop Tour dates—Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Boega, and Lukas Graham,also withdrew in solidarity, according to the source. Some of the artists cited their own country’s history of occupation in explaining their decision. The rapper had used his performances at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to speak in support of Palestinians, prompting the controversy.

Macklemore said he was dropped from the remaining United States dates after his onstage comments in support of Palestine. In a statement, Kraft said that before Macklemore issued the challenge, Sheeran had called and asked him to commit $2 million in humanitarian aid to the region. Kraft said Sheeran now planned to approach other venue owners in an effort to raise more money.

Focus on Palestinian Lives

“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,” Macklemore wrote in his Instagram post. “A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.” In a statement to Al Jazeera, Kraft said the decision to ban Macklemore from his venue wasn’t about “diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians” but argued that “advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas.”

Macklemore acknowledged that donating money carried far less risk than the work being done by people in Gaza and those organizing in support of Palestinians. “Writing a check is one of the least costly forms of solidarity available to me,” he said. “I am doing it because I can, and because these organizations are doing the work while much of the world debates it.”

Artist Calls for Continued Attention

In his latest statement, Macklemore said he wanted to pull the conversation away from himself and the controversy surrounding the tour. “That is what this has always been about. Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy,” he wrote. “It is about Palestinians’ right to freedom, dignity and safety in their own homeland.”

He ended with a call for people to keep paying attention. “When the news cycle moves on, which it will, don’t move with it. Free Palestine.” In a two-minute speech during his set at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 4 September, Macklemore expressed his desire to see a “free Palestine. 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.” His remarks prompted a petition from the Israeli American Council demanding his removal from the tour.

According to Sheeran, who posted his own explanation on Tuesday morning outlining his desire to remain publicly neutral on political causes, Kraft, along with several other venue owners, informed the English singer that his tour could not play at their stadiums if Macklemore continued as an opener, prompting his removal. A day later, all four of Sheeran’s opening acts for the remainder of the Loop tour—Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Boega, and Lukas Graham,withdrew from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore and Palestine.

Macklemore said he hoped to “center the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them, and the physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in. I want to center the organizers and activists who have paid real costs for standing with Palestine. Their risk is of a far different order than mine.

“Palestinians have lived for decades without basic rights and should not have to wait another day to be free,” he added. “That is where my focus will remain. I will continue to