Robert Kraft Calls Macklemore’s ‘Free Palestine’ Statements ‘Deeply Offensive’: ‘A Line Had Been Crossed’

Robert Kraft , the powerhouse businessman who owns and operates Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., has released a statement regarding the ouster of Macklemore from Ed Sheeran ‘s tour over what he calls Macklemore’s “deeply offensive and hurtful” statements “to the Jewish community.” On Monday (Sept.

14), Messina Touring Group, the promoter for Sheeran’s Loop Tour, reported that Macklemore had been booted from his role on the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s current tour after a group of NFL venues, including Kraft’s Gillette Stadium, informed the company that they would not allow the concerts to take place due to Macklemore’s “free Palestine” comments during a show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

During the MetLife concert, Macklemore’s first show on the tour, the rapper said from the stage, “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: 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.” On Monday, in the wake of the news that he’ had’d been removed from the tour, Macklemore released a statement claiming that Sheeran had been given an ultimatum by Kraft and other NFL stadium owners who informed him that they would not allow the tour to stop at their venues if Macklemore remained on the bill.

“Ed was in a f–ked up position,” Macklemore wrote.

“He told me that the words ‘Free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with.

I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood.” In his own statement, Kraft wrote, “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.” He added that while the decision was “not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf,” he felt “a line had been crossed” by Macklemore.