Macklemore's MetLife Rant Leaves Ed Sheeran Fans Outraged
Lefty rapper Macklemore has sparked fury after going on an anti-Israel rant while opening for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium over the weekend.The Israeli-American Council started a petition Sunday calling for Sheeran to drop the “Thrift Shop” singer from the remainder of his tour, accusing the rapper of spreading antisemitic propaganda.Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, made calls to “Free Palestine” and accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza at the New Jersey Meadowlands show.“I wanted to stand up here on stages across America and say two words that are near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine,” the Grammy-winning rapper said as he wore a keffiyeh draped over his shoulders. The rapper Macklemore, seen here performing last month, is under fire for spewing an anti-Israel rant when he opened for Ed Sheeran at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium this past weekend. AFP via Getty ImagesAnti-Israel images are flashed on the screen during the concert.The rapper also performed his song, “Hindi’s Hall,” a reference to the pro-Palestine protests at the Columbia University campus, while images from Gaza were played on giant screens.Moshe Creditor, 21, a longtime Sheeran fan who got surprise tickets for his birthday to attend the concert with his mom, said he was expecting Macklemore to pull some kind of stunt but that the scope of the incident left him horrified — and his mother in tears.“Imagine my shock when he got 80,000 people to chant ‘Free Palestine’ while putting on a song and music video to go with it,” Creditor told The Post. “I was completely disappointed, and it ruined what was supposed to be a great night,” the concertgoer said. “My mom got me those tickets, and she was just crying.” Creditor, who touted that he was among the top listeners of the English artist Sheeran on Spotify, said he hoped the mega-star would end all collaborations with Macklemore. Creditor’s father, Rabbi Menachem Creditor, said it was a mistake for Sheeran and his team to have Macklemore open the concert for him, given the rapper’s past anti-Israel remarks. The incident infuriated hordes of concertgoers.“They now have a responsibility to disavow Macklemore and apologize to all the fans they left down,” the rabbi said. The sentiment was shared by the Israeli-American Council, which is calling on Sheeran to distance himself from Macklemore and keep politics out of his concerts. “This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” said the IAC, which represents more than 15,000 Israeli-Americans.“The issue is not whether Macklemore has the right to hold political views. The question is where to draw the line when an opening act uses a global concert platform to advance a one-sided political agenda,” the group added.“This becomes even more troubling when the message relies on selective imagery, biased messaging, and disputed claims presented to a massive audience as fact, without context or complexity.”The Grammy-winning Macklemore, who wore a keffiyeh while opening for Sheeran, appears here wearing the traditional Mideast scarf during a Dublin show in June. RedfernsSheeran’s management and Macklemore’s public-relations teams did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.The concert was held Sept. 4, with tickets ranging from $71 to $210 on Ticketmaster. Josh Wein, a father of two, said he was excited to bring out his family to see the show — until Macklemore came out to the stage. “When he started chanting “Free Palestine” and pushing his clearly uneducated version of the Israel/Gaza conflict, my daughters looked at me completely confused,” Wein wrote on X. “I had brought them to an Ed Sheeran concert, not to have an opening act lecture them about Middle East politics.” Wein said the entire experience left his family sour as they vowed to stop supporting Sheeran over his association with Macklemore. New Jersey residents Noya Zuaretz and Gefen Levin, who attended the concert with friends and family, said they experienced similar dismay after failing to check who was going to open for Sheeran. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 734px" srcset="https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=320 320w, https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=480 480w, https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=640 640w, https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=800 800w, https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024 1024w, https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1536 1536w, https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=2048 2048w" width="885" height="590" src="https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/09/f1-held-motoring-club-january-139883303.jpg?w=1024" alt="Ed Sheeran at Deadline Spotlight: Anatomy of a Song - "F1" held at The Motoring Club on January 09, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty Images)
">Sheeran has yet to comment on the controversy. Deadline via Getty Images“We only found out there, and we were in shock. It was really horrifying,” they told Ynet. “It was even harder because friends of ours were killed in the war and murdered at Nova. It was like a knife in the heart to hear him sing that way and hear people cheering.” Mark Treyger, CEO of the New York Jewish Coalition, noted that the incident comes at a time when antisemitic hate crimes are running rampant following the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel.To turn a major concert into a platform for “one-sided political messaging” only helps to divide people rather than address the issues at hand, Treyger warned. “Ed Sheeran and his team should heed these serious concerns,” he told The Post. “Artists with extraordinary platforms also have extraordinary opportunities to use their talents to heal, bring people together and lower the temperature rather than raise it.” Macklemore has repeatedly slammed Israel for the casualties in Gaza while performing on stage. He first called the war “a genocide” while speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally in Washington in 2023, and later chanted “F–k America” during a similar rally in 2024 over then-President Joe Biden’s support of Israel. Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza, where the war has claimed more than 73,000 lives inside the Palestinian enclave, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health, which does not differentiate between civilians and terrorists. Israel said it only tagets terrorists and makes efforts to warn civilians to get out of the area before an attack.The IAC called for not only Macklemore to be removed from Sheeran’s remaining tour dates, but for all venues to establish clear boundaries between entertainment and political performances. “Jewish patrons should not be subjected to this propaganda,” the StopAntisemitism group wrote on X in response to Friday’s incident.“Fans deserve apologies and refunds. Unacceptable.”