Macklemore, the rapper whose hit, “Thrift Shop” has almost two billion – yes, with a “b” – views on YouTube, is the latest entertainment industry figure to throw his support behind the pro-Hamas protests on American campuses.
In a new song he just released on his Instagram account, “Hind’s Hall,” he celebrates the masked throngs who occupied Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York two weeks ago, dubbing it Hind’s Hall to honor a 6-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, who was killed Israel’s war in Gaza, one of many civilians not allowed by Hamas to take shelter in its vast network of tunnels.
“Block the barricade until Palestine is free,” he sings. As he praises the protesters, he makes sure to mention that there are Jews among them and asserts that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, as well as accusing Israel of genocide, apartheid, and colonization.
Song combines footage of students calling for "intifada"
The song video combines footage of the demonstrations with news clips from Gaza, where students all over the US have chanted to "globalize the Intifada" and "Burn down Tel Aviv," as well as threatening that the October 7 massacre by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed in Israel, and 250 people from all around the world and from many religions were kidnapped into Gaza, will be repeated. The video also includes images from anti-police protests in the US and he doesn’t neglect to repeat calls made a few years ago in America to “F**k the police.” Among the groups he disparages are AIPAC and CUFI (Christians United for Israel). Politicians shown as he sings lines meant to put them in a negative light include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Senator Mitch McConnell, and George Latimer, who is running against anti-Israel “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
But the main agenda expressed in the song is against US President Joe Biden, about whom he sings, “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all/And f**k no, I’m not voting for you in the fall.”
Among those who commented positively on the song was Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, credited with stealing just enough votes from the Democrats in 2016 to ensure that Donald Trump was elected, who wrote, “This is very powerful. Thank you for creating this.”
This isn’t the first time that Macklemore, a 40-year-old based in Seattle who is not Jewish, has expressed antisemitic sentiments. In 2014, he performed “Thrift Shop” in Seattle, wearing a costume that looked like a Nazi caricature of a Jew: a dark wig, long beard, and fake hooked nose. In the outcry that followed, he at first denied that anything was offensive about the getup, but then wrote, following pressure, that, “I wasn't attempting to mimic any culture, nor resemble one. A 'Jewish stereotype' never crossed my mind. Out of a negative can come a positive. Through this situation I've got hip to some incredible groups like the ADL and I encourage people to check the great work they, and others like them, do.”
In the “Hind’s Hall” post, Macklemore states that profits from the song will go to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief Agency, which has faced allegations that multiple employees are Hamas members who participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel.
The statement that UNRWA will receive proceeds from the song is as close as Macklemore comes to mentioning the terrorist group that is in control in Gaza and instigated the war when it attacked Israel seven months ago.