Robert Kraft pledged $2M to aid Palestinians amid Macklemore row. Where will he donate it?

JTA – Robert Kraft has found himself in an unusual position: nixing the rapper Macklemore’s appearance at a stadium he owns for what he said was hateful behaviour – and then taking up the performer’s charity challenge. 

Macklemore challenged the Jewish pro-Israel billionaire to make a donation in support of the Palestinians days after he’d pressured singer Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from his tour over the latter’s pro-Palestinian comments. Kraft responded by announcing that he would donate $2 million (R32.5) to “fight this humanitarian crisis” in the Middle East. 

“I have dedicated much of my life to building bridges between all people,” Kraft wrote in a statement posted by Gillette Stadium, which he owns and where Sheeran and Macklemore had been scheduled to play. “I believe deeply that all lives are worth protecting.” 

Kraft’s statement on Wednesday came in response to challenges from both artists: a public call from Macklemore to match his own $1 million (R16.2 million) donation to a group of six pro-Palestinian organisations; and what Kraft described as private conversations with Sheeran to commit twice that amount to unspecified groups. Kraft said his own donation was meant to match Sheeran’s.  

Kraft’s gift comes as the controversy has prompted questions about how pro-Israel Jews in positions of power choose to wield their influence to combat what they see as antisemitism. His pledge carries additional, politically fraught implications, as Jewish groups have been divided on whether, or how, to donate directly to Gaza relief efforts. 

In his public comments, Kraft has insisted that he does not object to pro-Palestinian advocacy or aid as long as it does not cross the line into advocating for Hamas. 

But where will Kraft donate? The New England Patriots owner didn’t specify in his public statement, and a representative didn’t immediately respond to questions from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA). 

In Macklemore’s own post issuing the donation challenge, he said the $1 million (R16.2 million) he was giving constituted his entire net earnings from Sheeran’s tour. He named six beneficiaries: the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, HEAL Palestine, Medical Aid for Palestinians, American Near East Refugee Aid, Gaza Soup Kitchen, and UNRWA USA, a nonprofit supporting the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees.  

UNRWA itself has proven particularly contentious among the Jewish community. After an investigation revealed that agency members had participated in Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel,  the Trump administration led a successful effort to slash the agency’s funding. 

In his posts, Kraft offered clues to where he has given in the past.  

“I’d like the people who are speaking in support of the Palestinian people to know that for decades, I have supported efforts that create opportunity for Palestinians and have brought young Palestinians and Israelis together to build businesses, create jobs, and forge relationships,” he wrote on Wednesday. In an earlier statement, Kraft said he has “created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect”. 

One well-known organisation that fits Kraft’s description of bringing Palestinians and Israelis together, Seeds of Peace, has a documented relationship with the businessman. In 1994, the year after the peacebuilding initiative launched, Kraft hosted more than 100 teenagers from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Egypt, and Morocco at a Patriots game.  

Seeds of Peace did not immediately respond to a JTA request for comment about whether Kraft would be giving to the group as part of his new pledge. 

Kraft has also invested heavily in a push to bring American football to Israel via the Kraft Family Israel Football League. In that context, Palestinians have played for league teams, including for the Judean Rebels, a team based in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. 

Steven Koltai, a Jewish onetime entrepreneurship liaison for former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and author of Peace Through Entrepreneurship, said he welcomed Kraft’s commitment. 

“I would love to see, as a Jew who believes in the two-state solution and particularly in humanitarian relief to the millions of Gazans who are completely blameless, if we could show that side of who we are,” Koltai told JTA. “I think that he would be doing an incredible mitzvah for the whole Jewish world, especially the American Jewish community, if he could leverage his money towards something like this.” 

Jeremy Burton, chief executive of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, told JTA that Kraft “deserves kudos for leaning in with his philanthropy”. Prior to the pledge, Burton had praised Kraft’s actions against Macklemore, saying in a statement that Kraft “drew a clear moral line in the sand about the demonisation and offensive conduct that he will not allow in ‘his home’”. 

“One can work to end Palestinian suffering without being antisemitic,” Burton wrote to JTA in a text on Thursday. 

Kraft has said he pressured Sheeran to drop Macklemore because he thought the latter’s conduct at a recent show, in which the rapper had accused Israel of “genocide” and broadcast footage from Columbia University’s encampments, crossed the line into “hate speech”. According to The Wall Street Journal, other NFL team owners had also voiced objections to Macklemore performing in their stadiums after witnessing one of his sets.  

The Journal also reported that Kraft, in his conversation with Sheeran, recalled that Macklemore had performed in a costume with antisemitic signifiers in 2014. Sheeran, whose tours have grossed nearly $2 billion since 2008, and Kraft are friendly: The singer performed at Kraft’s 2022 wedding.  

Backlash has been swift, with Sheeran distancing himself from the decision to drop Macklemore, and the singer’s other opening acts and supporting band leaving the tour in protest. Some of them named Kraft specifically in public comments. Figures including children’s entertainer Ms Rachel and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, have also defended Macklemore, with Ocasio-Cortez additionally criticising Kraft.  

“When you see what Robert Kraft did to line up all of the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way, it’s become clear that this is not just about one music artist or two music artists, but this is about how just a handful of stadium owners and the elite can prevent an entire massive issue, in this case, the genocide in Gaza,” the congresswoman told TMZ. 

Others, including singer Pink and Barstool Sports mogul Dave Portnoy, have criticised Macklemore or defended Kraft’s decision.  

Much of Kraft’s philanthropy has gone to fighting antisemitism and to Jewish organisations. He recently gave $10 million (R162.9 million) to Brandeis University to endow a new centre for Jewish life at the school. 

Koltai, who himself has not worked with Kraft, said it’s possible for Jewish donors to distribute money to Gaza through “vetted, kosher organisations” that are “clearly not Hamas”. He suggested that Kraft look beyond his past donations to peacebuilding and sports efforts in order to address the current need.  

“Sewage, water, housing, medical care, and child care are all much more important than a summer camp or a football team,” he said.