Photos of rapper Macklemore in what critics call an anti-Semitic Jewish caricature costume have resurfaced online, compounding a growing backlash that has already cost Ed Sheeran every opening act on his U.S. tour.
The 2014 images, showing Macklemore performing in Seattle wearing an oversized prosthetic nose, black beard, and shaggy black wig, returned to public attention as the fallout from his removal from Sheeran's Loop tour continued to escalate. Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, was dropped from the tour's remaining U.S. dates after delivering pro-Palestinian speeches at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4 and 5, during which he wore a Palestinian keffiyeh while "Free Palestine" images flashed on the arena's jumbotron. Every remaining support act on the tour has since walked off in solidarity, an Irish radio station pulled Sheeran's music from its playlist, and climate activist Greta Thunberg publicly piled on the Daily Mail reported.
Sheeran lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers in a single 24-hour stretch after fans criticized him, not for dropping Macklemore, but for not being vocal enough in support of the Palestinian cause. The episode has become a case study in how quickly political pressure campaigns can hollow out a commercial entertainment venture, and how a rapper with a documented history of anti-Semitic imagery has been recast by activists as a free-speech martyr.
Macklemore was slated to open for Sheeran at eight of the ten remaining shows on the American leg of the Loop tour. After his MetLife speeches, all eight venues threatened to pull the plug entirely if the rapper remained on the lineup. Messina Touring Group, the tour's promoter, confirmed the decision in a statement: Breitbart reported that the company said it had "been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup."
Macklemore did not go quietly. In an Instagram statement, he claimed Sheeran told him that billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft had orchestrated the move, "issuing an ultimatum" that the whole tour would be cancelled if Macklemore was not removed. Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium, has not publicly responded to the allegation.
Sheeran posted his own Instagram statement, insisting he was "not complicit" and that he holds private views on the conflict he has chosen not to broadcast from a concert stage.
"There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics, my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds. Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum."
That distinction, between a performer who keeps politics offstage and an activist who commandeers someone else's stage, was lost on the support acts who quit in rapid succession.
American singer Finneas withdrew first, posting a statement that read: "Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed. I have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people." The Washington Examiner reported that all remaining opening acts, Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Danish band Lukas Graham, Irish band Beoga, and the touring band, pulled themselves from the tour in solidarity.
Irish performer Aaron Rowe struck a more personal note, acknowledging that Sheeran "has been a friend to me and has changed my life" before adding:
"But as Irish people, we know all too well about genocide, forced famine and violent occupation."
Rowe also said he "cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up." Lukas Graham echoed the theme, saying performers "should be able to speak about war, about civilians being killed, about children who deserve to grow up."
Beoga, an Irish band that had joined Sheeran for eight songs including "Galway Girl," went further. The group said Macklemore had been silenced by "Zionist lobbies" and that performing "in venues that silence anyone advocating for a Free Palestine is simply not an option for us."
None of the departing acts addressed the resurfaced costume photos.
Greta Thunberg, described as a "staunch pro-Palestine activist" who has been detained twice after traveling on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, posted a statement on Instagram accusing Sheeran of trying to "both sides" what she called "Israel's genocide against the Palestinian people."
"This is a clear and undeniable sign that the global consciousness has shifted. The normalisation of an apartheid state, and the attempts to sanitise or justify its actions, will no longer be tolerated. Ed, there is only one victim here: the Palestinian people."
On Thursday morning, Ireland's Classic Hits Radio, owned by Bay Broadcasting, announced it would remove Sheeran's music from its playlist "for the foreseeable future." Group programme director Dave Kelly said the move was "carefully considered" and "not intended as a personal judgement on Ed Sheeran," but added that the station felt compelled to "stand alongside Irish artists who have made what is undoubtedly a significant professional decision based on their own convictions."
Fox News covered the controversy on its program "The Five," with co-host Emily Compagno framing Macklemore's stance as explicitly anti-Israel. Pop star Pink also publicly criticized Macklemore's conduct, stating as a Jewish mother that his on-stage rhetoric "scared me and it scared people I love."
The resurfaced 2014 photos added a layer the solidarity campaign preferred to ignore. At a performance in Seattle, Macklemore took the stage in an oversized prosthetic nose, black beard, and shaggy black wig, a getup widely criticized as a caricature drawn from anti-Semitic tropes. He apologized at the time, claiming he had no malicious intention and was unaware the costume resembled a Jewish stereotype.
Prominent Israeli activist Hen Mazzig was unconvinced, posting on X:
"Claiming ignorance about an obviously offensive costume isn't an apology. It's gaslighting the Jewish community about our pain. 12 years passed, yet Macklemore never learned how to listen to the people he harms."
Jewish activist Rachel Moiselle from Ireland posed a pointed comparison:
"Ask yourself this: would you tolerate someone who did Blackface this way and give him every benefit of the doubt while the Black community are telling you he is racist? No? Then why are your standards different for Jews?"
Moiselle added that while she does not believe anyone should be "de-platformed for their political beliefs," she considers Macklemore an anti-Semite and said Jewish concertgoers "shouldn't be scoffed at" for objecting to his presence on the tour. Talk show host Howard Feldman put it more bluntly: "Whatever moral high ground Macklemore tries to take, there will always be this photo to remind us what really motivates him."
The Sheeran-Macklemore blowup did not happen in a vacuum. A June Quinnipiac University poll found that 48 percent of voters and 66 percent of Democrats believe the United States is too supportive of Israel. When Quinnipiac first asked the question in 2017, only 16 percent of voters and 20 percent of respondents felt that way. Public opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shifted dramatically in less than a decade.
Internationally, the UK last week imposed sanctions on what it called illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the measures targeted "illegal settlements and settlement expansion" and accused Israeli settlers of "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists." Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called Miliband's characterization an "outrageous lie" and announced counter-measures including shutting the UK's consulate in East Jerusalem. France and Canada followed with their own trade bans on settlement goods, and twelve countries issued a joint statement warning that Israel's actions in the West Bank are threatening the two-state solution.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly planning to sell Israel a munitions package worth $2.8 billion, including 20,000 MK 84 bombs and 20,000 BLU-117 warheads, according to anonymous officials cited by the Washington Post. Gaza's health ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and a body that does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tallies, reported that Israeli airstrikes have killed 1,369 Palestinians since a ceasefire took hold in October.
Every artist who walked off Sheeran's tour framed the decision as a stand against silencing. Finneas invoked the oppressed. Rowe invoked Irish history. Beoga blamed "Zionist lobbies." Thunberg declared a global consciousness shift. None of them mentioned the prosthetic nose.
Macklemore performed in a costume that, applied to any other ethnic group, would have ended his career on the spot. He offered a thin denial eleven years ago and never revisited it. Now he stands at the center of an international pressure campaign built on the premise that he is a courageous truth-teller being persecuted by billionaires, while Jewish critics point to a photograph that tells a different story and ask why the standards keep changing depending on which community is offended.
When the costume fits, accountability should not be optional, no matter whose cause the wearer claims to champion.
