Pink spent Friday defending a week of criticism related to her decision to repost an Instagram post that attacked Macklemore’s appearance at an Ed Sheeran concert in defense of Palestinians. The singer softened and explained that she does not represent Israel and that critics formed an opinion about her without even asking her.
First of all, Pink said how long she stayed silent: “I’ve been quiet in my own words for a week, which you know isn’t like me. So here they are.”
Next, she mentioned the repost she shared and said that it wasn’t her wording: “Last Sunday I reposted somebody else’s post about Macklemore’s set at Ed Sheeran’s show. It said things in words I didn’t write, and I wouldn’t have chosen all of them,” the singer noted. However, the singer also admitted that she had made the situation worse due to the way she reacted to it: “Then the comments came, and I did what I do when I’m hurt, which is post snarky memes and act like I’m fine. That’s on me.” Pink also mentioned social media itself: “A repost isn’t a statement, and a meme isn’t a spine. Social media makes all of us cheap and fast, and we all know it.”
However, she also stressed that she had to repost because she wanted to be judged by her own words: “But I’d rather be disagreed with for what I actually said than hated for what anybody else wrote, so let me say it.”
Next, Pink touched upon her own background: “I was born a Jew. I didn’t pick it, and I’ve never hidden it.” This fact, however, was used against her to form an opinion: “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. But let me fill it in… myself.”
Pink stressed that she represents herself and her beliefs: “Of course I don’t speak for Israel, or for any government. I never have.” Next, Pink stressed that her point of view hadn’t changed during this war: “What I said in October 2023 is still exactly what I believe: 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.”
Stressing her UNICEF work, Pink said she was an ambassador for ten years for children who haven’t chosen the country or the war they were born into, and that she mourned for them on both sides of the line. “I didn’t do it from behind a screen; I went to those children and held them,” she added. Finally, Pink stressed that she doesn’t want to discuss the war itself any further: “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.”
In her second post, Pink explained why she reposted something controversial. First, Pink told the story of Macklemore’s performance of “Same Love” in 2014 when many couples got married to the tune of the song: “I was in the room at the Grammys in 2014 when Macklemore rapped ‘Same Love’ and thirty-three couples, gay and straight, got married to it, and I cheered, no questions asked,” Pink noted.
Later, however, Macklemore performed wearing a costume that everyone of Jewish nationality could recognize immediately: “Four months later Macklemore put on a hooked nose, a black beard and a bowl cut, performed in it, and called it a ‘random costume.’ Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was,” the singer noted. The singer was shocked that she and her co-religionists were left out of the celebration despite participating: “The same love, it turned out, had a guest list, and we weren’t on it.” The rapper eventually apologized, and she forgave him: “We let it go.”
Then Pink tells the story of the latest concert: “You don’t get to decide that for us,” the singer noted. What she was against was that very moment, not the movement in general: “That’s what prompted my repost. Not ‘Free Palestine,’ and not anyone’s right to say it.” The singer noted that she doesn’t want Macklemore to be punished: “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.” The singer wanted to describe her fear “as a Jewish mom, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love,'” without being accused of propaganda or of being a genocide supporter.
The singer stressed that she wasn’t afraid of taking unpopular positions: “In the middle of the Gulf War in 2006 I put out a song called ‘Dear Mr. President’ and sang it every night on tour while my country was in a war I didn’t support, and I took the hate for it, and I sang it anyway because my sharp criticism was of a government, not this flawed country I love and who my dad fought for,” Pink stated. Among other unpopular positions, the singer listed: supporting gay kids before it became fashionable, supporting trans kids, and giving out banned books, knowing that she’ll be called horrible things, but she will do it again. All of those positions cost money, and she knows exactly what they cost her.
In her third post, Pink reflected upon her difficult position as an advocate of her people: “And now I’m standing up for my own people, and I thought I knew going in how lonely that would be. And it’s lonelier than that. But I’m doing it anyway,” the singer stated. The singer noticed a change in her comment section: “‘From the river to the sea.’ ‘Zionist,’ spat like it’s a slur, by people who couldn’t tell you the details of what I believe because I hadn’t told them yet. I wasn’t asked. I was told,” the singer noted. The singer didn’t believe that most of the critics really hated Jews: “I don’t think most of them hate Jews. I think someone handed them a story that the Jew who won’t apologize for existing must be the villain, and they’ve been putting words in my mouth ever since,” she noted.
Acknowledging the role of the villain that she played before, Pink vowed not to be silent this time: “But I’ve been portrayed as the villain before. I can take it. I just won’t take it quietly, and I’m not going to teach my kids to,” the singer noted. Addressing the critics, the singer concluded: “So, to the ones who are furious with me: you don’t have to agree with me. You never did. That’s been our unspoken agreement for twenty-five years, and it still stands, and so do I.” Finally, she clarified her request: it wasn’t about her opinion of Israeli policy.
“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. That’s the only thing I’m asking anybody for,” the singer noted. At the same time, she also addressed those on other sides of the conflict: “To the ones who are frightened this week, Jewish or Muslim or Palestinian or Israeli or just tired of all of it: I see you.” The singer also asked to be asked for her opinion if necessary: “And if anybody wants to really know what I think, just ask me. I’m right here. I’ll keep speaking out, in my own words.”
Finally, Pink addressed the current date: “It’s Friday. For working people who have more to worry about than pop stars and pile-ons, it’s the end of a hard week.” Friday was the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it was the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year: “It’s also the 25th anniversary of September 11th, and my prayers are with the innocent souls we lost that morning. And at sundown, for Jews, it’s Rosh Hashanah, our New Year,” Pink noted. The singer finished her post with the list of her activities for the day: cooking dinner for her kids, lighting candles, dipping apples in honey, and drinking wine. “Shana tova,” she signed off.
