After Ed Sheeran tour ouster, Macklemore pledges $1 million to Gaza aid groups with terror ties, watchdog says

NGO Monitor founder and president Gerald Steinberg accused Macklemore of “blatant antisemitism under the thin facade of antizionism” and said his plan to donate to “terror-tied NGOs adds another dimension to this travesty.”

By Debbie Weiss, The Algemeiner

Macklemore has pledged $1 million from his earnings on Ed Sheeran’s tour to six aid groups supporting Palestinians, including three with Hamas and other terrorist ties, the Jerusalem-based watchdog NGO Monitor said Thursday, amid a public feud over the rapper’s ouster from the tour.

Macklemore announced the donation after he was fired from the remaining US dates of Sheeran’s Loop Tour following performances at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in which he chanted “Free Palestine,” accused Israel of “apartheid” and “genocide,” and performed his anti-Israel song “Hind’s Hall” as images from Gaza and of Israeli soldiers appeared on screens behind him.

Macklemore announced on X that he would donate his entire net earnings from the tour to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, HEAL Palestine, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Medical Aid for Palestinians, UNRWA USA, and Anera, while challenging New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to match the $1 million contribution.

Kraft—who owns Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, where Sheeran was scheduled to perform on Sept. 25 and 26—rallied other stadium owners to pressure Sheeran’s team to drop Macklemore from the tour.

Three of Macklemore’s chosen groups, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Anera, and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, appear in internal Hamas documents recovered from Gaza and later declassified by the Israeli military, NGO Monitor said.

An internal 2022 Hamas document cited by NGO Monitor described a senior Gaza employee of MAP as “affiliated with the Hamas movement” and working in “the positive,” terminology the watchdog said was used for Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The document also said he had “allegiance” to Hamas rule.

The watchdog also said MAP was funded by the Abdel Shafi Community Health Association, which it described as founded and directed by senior members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group, while previous Gaza partners included the Hamas-run Health Ministry and an organization funded by Interpal, a charity designated by the US Treasury over alleged support for Hamas.

A separate 2021 Hamas intelligence document cited by NGO Monitor said a former employee of Anera, a US-based humanitarian organization operating in Gaza, “used to work as an intelligence source” for a unit of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Other Hamas records, however, described Anera itself as “not cooperating” with the ministry and said it had resisted Hamas financial and administrative inspections.

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a US-based nonprofit that provides medical care to Palestinian children, also appears repeatedly in internal Hamas records.

One document cited by NGO Monitor lists PCRF as a donor to a Gaza rehabilitation association whose board included two members identified as Hamas-affiliated, while others show the group operating under Hamas restrictions governing foreign medical delegations.

PCRF also has ties to the Holy Land Foundation, a US charity later convicted of providing material support to Hamas.

The two groups jointly staged a 1996 fundraising tour, with 40% of the proceeds going to PCRF.

After Holy Land was designated a Hamas fundraising organization and its assets frozen, it sought Treasury approval in 2004 to transfer $50,000 to PCRF.

MAP has rejected allegations of Hamas ties, while Anera says it maintains a strict “no-contact” policy with Hamas.

NGO Monitor founder and president Gerald Steinberg accused Macklemore of “blatant antisemitism under the thin facade of antizionism” and said his plan to donate to “terror-tied NGOs adds another dimension to this travesty.”

Some of the groups Macklemore pledged to “are well known as sources of propaganda that demonize Israel,” he said, with “links to the heinous Hamas terror regime.”

“Macklemore’s attempt at virtue signaling does nothing to build peace, rather the opposite,” he told The Algemeiner.

UNRWA USA, another recipient named by Macklemore, is a separate US nonprofit that raises private donations for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

It says it has sent nearly $80 million to UNRWA’s Gaza emergency fund since October 2023 and is now the agency’s largest institutional donor worldwide.

UNRWA itself has faced repeated allegations of Hamas infiltration.

A UN investigation concluded in 2024 that nine staff members “may have been involved” in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and terminated their employment.

In June, UNRWA fired 70 Gaza employees after accusations that they were affiliated with Hamas.

Israeli forces have on multiple occasions reported finding weapons, Hamas command facilities, and a 700-meter tunnel used by Hamas military intelligence beneath UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters.

Kraft responded that Macklemore’s call for him to match the rapper’s $1 million donation came after Sheeran had already asked Kraft to match a separate $2 million humanitarian contribution. Kraft agreed, bringing their combined pledge to $4 million.

“I believe deeply that all lives are worth protecting,” Kraft said.

“For decades, I have supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians and have brought young Palestinians and Israelis together to build businesses, create jobs, and forge relationships.”

In a statement on Monday defending Macklemore’s removal from the tour, Kraft said the decision was aimed at the rapper’s “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community,” and not his advocacy for Palestinians.

“This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf. Their pain and loss are real,” Kraft said.

“Standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism, and hate should not be mutually exclusive.”

“I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same—peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate,” he added.