Paul Drees defends Macklemore’s Palestine advocacy
Speaking personally as a Christian pastor on his Instagram account, @pastorpauldrees.
“Macklemore is just part of this long history of those with power quashing dissidents.”
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Existing-case update candidate for case 8, Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” speech and removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour. Verified original video on @pastorpauldrees, with Paul Drees visibly speaking in clerical dress. The quoted passage was read directly from the video’s embedded captions across consecutive frames at approximately 01:23–01:27. Caption fragments are joined with sentence punctuation; this is a short excerpt, not a complete transcript or an audio-verified transcription. The surrounding passage reviewed at approximately 00:42–01:28 criticizes Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft, argues that powerful people suppress dissent, and compares Macklemore’s treatment to earlier suppression of dissenters. Those assessments and Drees’s account of Kraft’s intervention are attributed to Drees. His written post description separately frames Palestinian liberation as a moral position and invokes Christian witness on behalf of marginalized people.
Before the quotation
At approximately 00:42–01:23 in his Instagram video, Drees criticizes Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft and argues that powerful people suppress dissent. He attributes Macklemore’s tour removal to Kraft’s intervention; that account is Drees’s assertion. The quoted sentence appears in embedded captions across consecutive frames at approximately 01:23–01:27.
After the quotation
Drees begins a comparison with earlier suppression of dissent, including the civil rights movement. His written post description separately invokes Christian witness on behalf of marginalized people and endorses Palestinian liberation.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” speech and removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to Macklemore’s Palestine advocacy under scrutiny in this case, Drees expresses substantive approval and portrays the backlash as suppression of dissent. His written description calls advocacy for Palestinian liberation a moral stance.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Macklemore
Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” speech and removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“Glad to see Macklemore off Ed Sheeran’s tour. For years, Macklemore has pushed antisemitic tropes and demonized Israel and Israelis. Now he certainly has the 1A right to speak out and express his views, but demonizing Jews and Israelis shouldn’t be rewarded.”Read statement
“The moral narcissism of this guy. People don’t generally pay to go to concerts (certainly not Ed Sheeran ones) to get lectured by a dropkick about geopolitics, and objecting to that doesn’t make them bad people. It’s like giving a speech about cancer at someone’s wedding and then saying well cancer is more important than your feelings and so it’s my right and duty to give a speech about cancer and if you complain about it you obviously don’t care about cancer. There are layers of logical fallacy here. As I’ve noted before, sufferers of Israel derangement syndrome think that everybody else should be as deranged as they are, and that those who are not are morally inferior.”Read statement
“This will backfire spectacularly on Kraft et al (and proponents of the current Israeli government around war in Gaza). Most of us were unaware of Macklemore’s on-stage advocacy. Now, in the aftermath of this move by Sheeran (direct result of Kraft’s ultimatum), Macklemore is going to get an insane amount of positive earned media.”Read statement