Due to Macklemore's stance in solidarity with Palestine, Ed Sheeran has excluded the rapper from his US tour. All previous acts and the band have now canceled the rest of the tour out of solidarity. It is clear to them that there is no neutrality on this issue. – A comment from Bruno Schüller.

In the past few weeks, Ed Sheeran began his large-scale tour with almost 30 concerts in the USA. The rapper Macklemore, among others, was announced as support. He became known through hits like “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us” in the early 2010s and is considered a long-time friend of the Irish pop singer.

Macklemore is also known for having repeatedly openly taken a position against the genocide and occupation of Israel in Palestine in recent years. At the beginning of September, at the beginning of the tour, he also used the stage of the MetLife Stadium in New York to express his solidarity with the Palestinians.

He repeatedly encouraged visitors to send a sign of solidarity together and shout “Free Palestine” with him. He also performed his song “Hind’s Hall,” which was released in the context of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Macklemore explained during his appearance that he had also accepted Ed Sheeran's invitation because he wanted to raise awareness among visitors about the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

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Hate campaign against Macklemore

Due to his open solidarity with the Palestinian people, the rapper has been targeted by the American public several times and this time too, public defamation was not long in coming.

The organization StopAntisemitism, which has increasingly taken action against pro-Palestinian activists and private individuals over the past three years and denounces them as Hamas supporters, accused Macklemore in an Instagram post of spreading anti-Israel propaganda. The singer Pink also supported the post and spread it among her followers.

As a result of the public confrontation, the Israeli-American Council (IAC) – an organization that promotes close cooperation between Israel and the US – opened a petition. In this, Ed Sheeran was asked to remove Macklemore from his tour.

Organizers ensure that the rapper is excluded

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Messina Touring Group, the organizer of the Ed Sheeran US tour, revealed that the venues for the upcoming concerts had announced that they would not tolerate Macklemore's appearance. In consultation with those responsible, it was decided that the rapper would not appear at the upcoming concerts.

According to Macklemore, this was preceded by a campaign by the US capitalist and billionaire Robert Kraft. Among other things, it owns the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, where two concerts on the tour will take place at the end of September.

Kraft is said to have given Ed Sheeran an ultimatum. Together with other event venue owners, Macklemore's exclusion is said to have been called for. Otherwise the concerts would not be allowed to take place.

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Ed Sheeran breaks his silence – or does he?

On September 15th, Ed Sheeran released a statement on Instagram. In this he rejects the blame for Macklemore's expulsion and explains that the decision was made by the organizers and owners of the venues.

In addition to the question of who was responsible for Macklemore's exclusion, Ed Sheeran skillfully managed to avoid responsibility for making his own statement. He notes that he does not use his own reach for political statements and calls for space to be given to different approaches that set peace as their goal.

On the one hand, the singer is trying to completely avoid responsibility for his own tour. On the other hand, he is of course right that this decision was not made by him. However, the global star missed a crucial opportunity to break his indifferent attitude towards the genocide against the Palestinians and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and his long-time colleague.

Ed Sheeran's statement becomes particularly hypocritical when you see how he has behaved on other political issues in the past. He commented on the war in Ukraine several times, called for fundraising campaigns or posed in photos of support. His supposed neutrality only applies if he thereby contradicts the interests of EU or US imperialism.

Musicians show backbone

After the decision about Macklemore's exclusion became public, many musicians also declared their solidarity with the rapper. The musicians Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, who were announced as support for the upcoming concerts, also left Ed Sheeran's tour.

Ed Sheeran's backing band also announced that they would not be playing at the upcoming concerts. Now the Irish pop singer will probably have to stand alone on stage. In his statement, Lukas Graham once again draws attention to the capitalists who were decisive for Macklemore's exclusion. As he writes: “Money does not give you the right to dictate the discourse.”

Aaron Rowe also focuses on the owners of the venues in his statement. The artist explains: “I cannot stand idly by as billionaires exploit their position of power to silence the legitimate voices of those who speak out against the Israeli genocide and its cruelty.”

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What is significant about the statements is that they are not directed against Ed Sheeran as a person or his indifferent attitude. Rather, the musicians try to emphasize their personal relationships with the Irish pop singer and relieve him of responsibility. A collective cancellation of the entire tour was probably out of the question for Ed Sheeran, but in all likelihood he will continue the tour on September 19th in Philadelphia.

However, Macklemore announced that he would donate all of his earnings from the tour - around $1 million - to Palestinian organizations. He also called on Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft to do the same. The two then declared that they would each donate two million dollars to organizations that would help in the “region”. So the money will probably go to Israeli organizations.

As generous as Macklemore's donation seems, it does little to change his vast fortune. And even though he has lost a few deals in recent years due to his political stance - which is actually very progressive and often directed against the capitalist system as the cause - it is precisely this profile that helps him to achieve success and earn millions as a musician.

Nevertheless, Macklemore also sums up Ed Sheeran's false stance, declaring in his statement: "But there is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed. When one side has the bombs and full US financial and military support, refusing to take sides does not mean you are in the middle."

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Not the first and not the last attack

The fact that public defamation and open repression against activists in solidarity with Palestine are no exception has been shown countless times in recent years. Whether at demonstrations or in the media: the open positioning against the genocide and the oppression of the Palestinians has been publicly scandalized for years.

This was also recently demonstrated by an incident in Germany. During an appearance by the rapper Dahabflex at a Left Party election campaign event in Berlin, he spoke out against the oppression of the Palestinians and shouted slogans such as “Yallah Yallah Intifada – West Bank, Palestine, Gaza” or “Death, death to the IDF” – calls to end the genocide and oppression in Palestine.

As a result, countless media outlets launched public agitation against the Kurdish rapper, and he was accused of anti-Semitism and open hatred of Jews. Now even the Berlin police are investigating the artist.

Public dealings with Israel

The public treatment of the Israeli apartheid state is in contrast to this. He always gets his back at international events. An example of this is Israel's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, an international music competition that has become an arena of political disputes in recent years.

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After Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the country was excluded from participation in 2022. Israel, which began the genocide of the Palestinian people in October 2023, has also been allowed to take part in the competition for the past three years. In addition, public protests were scandalized and pro-Palestinian activists were arrested. In response to Israel's participation, several countries withdrew their participation in the event this year.

The attitude of those in power when dealing with artists who show solidarity with Palestine shows again and again how voices that oppose imperialist wars should be kept down. Solidarity with the Palestinian people and the demand for an end to oppression and apartheid alone are used as an opportunity to incite against the movement and blatantly accuse it of anti-Semitism. The most recent example surrounding Ed Sheeran's tour will probably not be the last time that consistent opposition to genocide leads to public exclusion and incitement.

The postEd Sheeran is on the side of the oppressors – and alone on stageappeared firstperspective.