The pro-Palestine protests at US universities now have an accompanying song. American rapper Macklemore released “Hind’s Hall” to support the movement. All proceeds from the song will go to the UN relief organization for Palestinians UNRWA, he announced on Monday on the X platform.
The song contains all the catchphrases of the extremely heated debate about the conflict, in which there is little room for nuance: Israel is an apartheid state, there is talk of genocide and colonialism. The title refers to a building at Columbia University in New York that was renamed by protesters after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl from Gaza who was killed during the war.
There would be blood on Joe Biden’s hands
In the accompanying video, scenes of the protests and war in Gaza can be seen, but also images of US President Joe Biden, against whom Macklemore explicitly objects in the song. “The blood is on your hands, Biden,” he raps. And: “I won’t vote for you in the fall.” The rapper also relates Biden’s planned TikTok ban to the conflict. That comes too late, because we have already seen what is happening in Gaza.
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This is likely to increase concern in the Biden camp that the pro-Palestine sentiment, especially among young people in the USA, could harm the US President in the election campaign – and thus benefit his opponent Donald Trump. Jill Stein, who is running for the Green Party in the US election, praised Macklemore’s song on X as “very powerful.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj can also be seen in the song’s video, as someone who would be granted the “right to defend himself” by the USA. In contrast to the “resistance”, i.e. the resistance in Gaza. Who exactly this means remains unclear.
Macklemore was involved in an anti-Semitism scandal
Macklemore places himself in a row with legendary hip-hop protest songs when he quotes NWA, for example, who denounced racism and violence in the US police with “Fuck tha Police” in 1988. The 40-year-old rapper calls on his colleagues to speak out. “What happened to the artist? What did you have to say?” he asks and also addresses the ongoing feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which is currently attracting a lot of attention: “I want a ceasefire, fuck a response from Drake,” says Macklemore. Instead of focusing on the beef between two rappers, the message is that we should focus on a ceasefire.
This is not the first time that Macklemore has spoken out politically. In 2014’s “Same Love” he advocated for same-sex love and in “White Privilege II” against racism. His song was largely well received by his American fans on social media. However, some X users pointed out that Macklemore caused an anti-Semitism scandal in 2014. At the time, he wore a costume with a big nose and a black wig that was read by many as a Jewish stereotype – which Macklemore acknowledged and apologized for after public criticism.
In his song, he now responds to possible accusations in a preventive manner: Macklemore says in his song that it is not anti-Semitic, and Jews are also demonstrating in the pro-Palestine protests at US universities.