“If the Palestinians were to do something like what happened on October 7 today, I think everyone would be like, ‘That’s kind of justified.’ ”
This is the opinion of a young woman from Dublin called Sarah. Now, to be fair to her, before she said hundreds of Israeli civilians being raped and murdered would be okay in 2026, she did say she “wasn’t sure if October 7 was legitimate” back in 2023.
“Like, did it actually come from Palestinians?” she asked. “I don’t want to say this is true, but there are things I’ve read that have said, like, is Israel behind the scenes actually supporting Hamas to make the Palestinians look like terrorists when they’re not?”
Her mate Charlie then weighed in on the pros and cons of the biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. “Of course, people died,” said Charlie. “But like, we’re in Ireland. We were responsible for a lot of deaths that gained our independence. America did the same. There are hundreds of thousands of people that have done the same thing because of hundreds of years of oppression and genocide.”
I talked to these young people because they are some of the many Irish fans who have turned out to see the rapper Macklemore kick off his Free Palestine Tour, which has been swiftly organized in the six weeks since New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft refused to let him perform at his stadium as Ed Sheeran’s support act. At the time, I argued that Kraft’s actions would propel Macklemore to a bigger stage, a bigger audience, more attention. So here I was, in Dublin, to test my thesis. I wanted to speak to those who had helped sell out the arena tour of a rapper who, before October 7, mostly played to small theater crowds.