Ed Sheeran creates a “divide” with his fans

By Ryan Denkovic

On Sept. 4, American rapper and singer-songwriter Macklemore gave a politically-charged speech while opening for Ed Sheeran at MetLife Stadium, in which he proudly asserted, “Free Palestine.” Ten days later, he was kicked off the tour. Macklemore, whose off-stage name is Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, has very vocally opposed the acts of violence that Israel has been committing against the Palestinian people. 

Macklemore’s removal from the tour has sparked outrage, as many people — myself included — believe that artists have the power and responsibility to use their platform to speak out against atrocities and wrongdoings in the world; and by removing Macklemore from the tour, they are silencing activists’ voices. Following the massive amount of backlash, Ed Sheeran put out a statement last week in which he says, “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The suffering and pain caused on both sides is a human tragedy.” Sheeran’s initial choice to not pick a side caused even more backlash, including the loss of 500,000 followers on his Instagram. 

In his first concert since Macklemore’s removal, Sheeran said that “What happened in Israel at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain,” while also calling the events in Gaza “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.” When mentioning the Nova Music Festival, Sheeran is referring to a tragic event in which Palestinian military forces (Hamas) attacked a music festival happening in Israel on the morning of October 7th, 2023. Casualties were later stated to be 378 individuals who had been killed and 44 having been taken hostage. There were also multiple accounts of sexual violence committed by Hamas, and soldiers going through buildings and massacring festival goers in hiding. The attacks are now the worst instance of an Israeli civilian massacre in the history of the nation. 

It should be noted, however, that recent investigations show evidence of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government having knowledge of the attack before it happened, and choosing not to do anything. This could be seen as Israel wanting Palestine to make the first move in order to make mass retaliation justifiable.

Sheeran has also stated that he has never wanted to be an “activist musician,” however, this statement is quite hypocritical of Sheeran, considering he has used his platform to speak politically multiple times, including the “Love Music Hate Racism” campaign in 2019 and his public support of the Equality Act, which was put before Congress in 2021, and for Ukraine in 2022 after Russia’s invasion. Photos of that last one, especially, have been resurfacing online recently in posts calling out his hypocrisy.

Similarly, Macklemore put out a statement on Sept. 14, where he said, “Ed was in a f—– up position.” He goes on to say that Sheeran was struggling since he wanted to keep his apolitical image, and that he does not blame Sheeran, but he will still stand for his opinions, no matter the cost.

I wholeheartedly agree with what Macklemore said at MetLife, and I find his words to be a pillar of hope in a world that is so hell-bent on feeding the masses negativity and breeding polarization. As I stated previously, I am a firm believer that artists of any kind should be using their platform and reach to speak out, and the fact that Macklemore is standing his ground, even after events that could be the end of his touring career, is incredibly admirable to see him step up and use his platform for good.

Since Macklemore’s removal from the tour, every other opening act for the tour has dropped out in support, including Sheeran’s own backing band. Furthermore, several previous openers have publicly supported Macklemore’s statements. Macklemore has gone on to say that he plans to donate $1 million towards Palestinian relief, equivalent to what he made in his brief tenure on the tour. Meanwhile, Sheeran’s promoter — and known American Israel Public Affairs Committee donor — Robert Kraft has announced that they are going to be donating $2 million towards an “aid for the region” fund, but did not state specifically where the funds will be going. Because of Kraft’s ties to AIPAC, it is possible to assume that, instead of going to a bipartisan effort, this donation would be solely supporting Israel.

In my opinion, Israel’s actions against Palestine in the past couple of years reflect that of a genocide. There is no apolitical stance you can take when every single day, innocent people, including children, are being starved, tortured and killed en masse. To assert indifference; to not take the side of opposition and stand by it with integrity; to turn the other way and claim it is “not your problem” because it does not affect you directly, is the same as supporting the acts of violence against the Palestinian people. No one, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or any other possible difference, should have their life taken away from them just because they are different. Every single person on this earth deserves to be loved; deserves the chance to live; deserves to not have their life stripped away prematurely. I think that Ed Sheeran is right in admitting his mistakes, despite how his original stance sounded, but I also believe he has a lot to learn from his contemporaries; individuals like Macklemore who are unafraid of sacrifice in order to use their voice for the greater good.

Ryan Denkovic is a sophomore English major