Key Facts

• Macklemore performed at Dublin’s 3Arena, which holds up to 13,000 people; tickets sold out.
• Macklemore, whose legal name is Benjamin Haggerty, announced the tour after Sheeran’s promoter dropped him from the Loop Tour.
• Macklemore said “Free Palestine” at two concerts and described deaths in Gaza from Israel’s military campaign as genocide; Israel rejects that claim.
• Sheeran said the decision to remove Macklemore was made by the tour’s promoter, not by Sheeran himself.
• Macklemore said proceeds from the Free Palestine tour will go to organizations supporting Palestinians.
• The tour is scheduled to continue in Paris on Thursday and London on Friday.
• The article reports that more than 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza, citing figures from the Hamas-run health ministry that the UN considers reliable.
• The article says about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.