Pink says standing up for Jews has been ‘lonelier’ than she expected

Pink said Friday that “standing up for my own people” had proven even lonelier than she had expected, as she explained why she had criticized Macklemore’s recent pro-Palestinian performance at an Ed Sheeran concert and pushed back at assumptions about her views on Israel.

“I’ve been quiet in my own words for a week, which you know isn’t like me. So here they are,” the Jewish American pop star wrote in a lengthy Instagram statement posted on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

The controversy began September 6, when Pink shared on her Instagram story a post from the StopAntisemitism account criticizing Macklemore’s remarks during his opening set for Sheeran at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

“Jewish fans bought tickets to see Ed Sheeran sing last night in NJ, not to be ambushed by Macklemore’s anti-Israel propaganda,” the post read.

It accused Macklemore of turning the concert into a political event by appearing onstage in a keffiyeh, shouting “Free Palestine” and accusing Israel of genocide, adding that concertgoers deserved an apology and refunds from Sheeran.

Pink said Friday that the repost had contained language she had not written and would not necessarily have chosen herself.

We thank @Pink for her solidarity and we demand refunds for every attendee subjected to Jew-hatred.

Following Macklemore’s pro-terror performance last night, Pink shared a post on Instagram stories condemning the performers actions.

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Macklemore is the same artist who has said… pic.twitter.com/0dpd0b3ibd

— End Jew Hatred (@EndJewHatred) September 7, 2026

“A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine,” she wrote. “Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it. But I’d rather be disagreed with for what I actually said than hated for what anybody else wrote.”

Pink, whose birth name is Alecia Beth Moore, then addressed assumptions she said had been made about her because of her Jewish identity.

“I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it,” she wrote. “And this week a whole lot of people decided what I believe without asking me, without checking a single thing I’ve ever said or done, because a repost and the word ‘Jew’ were apparently enough to fill in the rest.”

She reiterated positions she said she had held since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught on southern Israel: “Hamas is a terrorist organization. Palestinians deserve a future that honors their humanity and their aspirations. Protecting innocent life comes first, everywhere, and nobody should ever celebrate the death of a child. Anybody’s child.”

“I’m not going to litigate a complex war in an Instagram caption, and I’m not going to recite anybody’s slogan to earn back a follower,” she added.

‘You don’t get to decide that for us’

Macklemore drew criticism from some Israeli and Jewish attendees last weekend after calling out “Free Palestine” during his opening set for Sheeran at MetLife Stadium and performing his anti-Israel protest song “Hind’s Hall” as footage from Gaza, images of Israeli soldiers and pro-Palestinian messages appeared on screens behind him. Social media footage appeared to show him repeating the performance the following Saturday night.

Several Israeli concertgoers told Hebrew-language outlets they felt blindsided and distressed by the set, with one attendee saying two Jewish teenage girls nearby left in tears. The Israeli-American Council later launched a petition urging Sheeran and organizers of the Loop Tour to remove Macklemore from the remaining dates.

Pink said the performance revived memories of a previous Macklemore controversy. She recalled cheering him at the 2014 Grammy Awards when he performed “Same Love” as couples were married onstage, before pointing to an incident several months later in which he performed wearing a black wig and beard and a large fake hooked nose.

The rapper said at the time that the disguise was a randomly assembled costume and was not intended as a Jewish caricature. He later apologized, saying he understood how the outfit could be interpreted as an antisemitic stereotype and that he had not foreseen it being viewed that way.

“But he apologized, and I let it go, because that’s what we do. We let it go,” Pink wrote.

Reminder – Macklemore dressed up as an Orthodox Jew, wearing a massive prosthetic nose at a Seattle show.

Macklemore doesn’t care about Palestinians.

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He just hates Jews. pic.twitter.com/owNKyRA81D

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) September 7, 2026

Referring to the MetLife performance, Pink continued: “Then last weekend he 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.”

During the performance, Macklemore addressed his “Jewish brothers and sisters,” saying, “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you.”

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

Pink stressed that she was not objecting to Macklemore saying “Free Palestine” or arguing that he should be prevented from speaking.

“I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund,” she said. “What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mom, ‘That scared me, and it scared people I love,’ without being told our fear is just propaganda.”

‘Standing up for my own people’

Pink has previously spoken publicly about her Jewish identity and experiences with antisemitism. In December 2025, while lighting Hanukkah candles with Israeli actress and activist Noa Tishby, she recalled being targeted with an antisemitic slur, “kike dyke,” as a child and said that after she became famous, her mother’s address was posted online alongside threats because she was Jewish.

At the time, Pink said her mother had once apologized that people knew she was Jewish. “Mom, I’m very proud of who I am and what I am,” she recalled replying.

In Friday’s statement, Pink said she had spent much of her career speaking on behalf of causes that could bring criticism, citing her advocacy for LGBTQ rights and her 2006 protest song “Dear Mr. President.”

“And now I’m standing up for my own people, and I thought I knew going in how lonely that would be,” she wrote. “And it’s lonelier than that. But I’m doing it anyway.”

She also pushed back at commenters using “Zionist” as an insult or assuming they knew her views on Israeli policy.

“I don’t think most of them hate Jews,” she wrote. “I think somebody handed them a story where the Jew who won’t apologize for existing must be the villain, and they’ve been putting words in my mouth ever since.”

Pink ended by addressing Jews, Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis who felt frightened or exhausted by the conflict.

“You don’t have to agree with one thing Israel’s government does to not want the Jewish family two rows down from you to be scared or targeted at a concert,” she wrote. “That’s the only thing I’m asking anybody for.”