Macklemore is accusing some of America’s most iconic arenas of shutting his “Free Palestine” tour out.
“By mid-September, we received available dates at these arenas through the end of the year,” he said in the Instagram post. “But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table. The doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same. The shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues.”
“In over 20 years of touring, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” he also wrote. “I’d rather lose every opportunity in this industry than spend another day protecting people who value their business relationships with Israel more than they value Palestinian human life.”
“We live in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech. Yet we’ve reached a point where a handful of billionaires can decide which causes are acceptable, which voices are welcome and which human lives are worth defending,” he later wrote. “Today it’s Palestine. What will it be tomorrow?”
Macklemore ended his post with, “They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will. FREE PALESTINE!”
Variety has reached out to the nine arenas Macklemore mentioned for comment.
See Macklemore’s full message on Instagram below.
