Rapper Macklemore has been dropped from Ed Sheeran’s US tour after making pro-Palestinian comments on stage earlier this month.

The artist – whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty – had been the opening act for Sheeran’s Loop tour, but was criticised by Jewish groups after saying “Free Palestine” at two concerts and making political speeches.

Macklemore stood by his comments on Monday, confirming that he had been cut from the tour and writing in a statement that the real victims are the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Ed Sheeran has not yet commented, and who will replace Macklemore for the rest of the tour is unknown.

The controversy began on 4 September, when Macklemore, a long-time pro-Palestine activist, performed at Ed Sheeran’s concert at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

He told the audience: “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so that I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very, very dear to my heart: Free Palestine.”

He then performed his song Hind’s Hall, which condemns Israel’s military action in Gaza, while video footage of the devastation in Gaza was shown on the big screen.

After that performance, the campaign group StopAntisemitism criticised the rapper, saying “Jewish fans bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran sing… not to be ambushed by Macklemore’s anti-Israel propaganda.”

The next night, Macklemore returned to the same stage and directly addressed his “Jewish brothers and sisters” in the audience.

“Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide, is in no way a criticism of you,” he said, adding that he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten.

Israel rejects allegations of genocide. It says its troops conduct self-defence operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in accordance with international law.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to an unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

During Israel’s military campaign in Gaza more than 73,780 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

But the backlash against Macklemore only grew louder, and included a petition by the Israeli-American Council urging Sheeran to remove him from the tour.

“This was an Ed Sheeran concert – not a political rally, not a protest, and not an activist event,” the council said, adding that the rapper used “biased messaging and disputed claims.”

In his statement on Instagram, which was nearly 1,000 words long, Macklemore said that after a week of “difficult conversations” with Sheeran, that ultimately ended “in a place of fundamental disagreement”, he was dropped from the lineup.

Tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, told Rolling Stone magazine that it had been told by venues that they would not allow Macklemore to perform, “which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.”

In his statement, Macklemore said he empathised with the difficult position Sheeran was in, but criticised the English singer for not taking a stance.

“Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access. I’ve lost all of those things. But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed,” he wrote.

He also addressed the accusations of antisemitism, writing that “one of the most effective ways to enforce silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism”.

Macklemore added: “When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying “Free Palestine” gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.”

But he emphasised that even though he only did two shows on the tour, if his words succeeded in “turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.”

The controversy also saw US singer Pink, who is Jewish, drawn into the furore after she reposted a message criticising Macklemore.

She, too, received massive backlash for her stance, with critics taking aim at everything from her parenting style to past comments about women like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

She later posted a long statement saying she does not speak for Israel or for any government, and explained her criticism of Macklemore’s comments and conduct on stage.

“Last weekend [Macklemore] stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them.”

“You don’t get to decide that for us,” she wrote.

Pink also pointed out that in 2014, Macklemore performed his same-sex anthem Same Love at the Grammys, while a mass wedding ceremony saw 33 LGBTQ+ couples get married on stage.

But later that year he apologised for a costume he wore which included a black wig, beard and a fake hooked nose, which critics said was antisemitic.