Jonathan Greenblatt urges stadium owners to act over Macklemore’s speech
CEO of the Anti-Defamation League
“Macklemore demonized Israel and Israelis to a crowd of unsuspecting fans who came for music not propaganda. And while he may have the right to say what he wants, no matter how grotesque, businesses have every right to decide who they platform. We encourage stadium owners and venue management to demonstrate their values.”
The full case
Macklemore’s “Free Palestine” speech and removal from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
Source and context
Original post
Jonathan Greenblatt urges venues to respond to Macklemore’s speech (opens in a new tab)Complete X post and timestamp
About this source
Primary X post. It directly attributes this reaction to Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) and provides the post text and timestamp.
Before the quotation
Greenblatt quoted an ADL post criticizing Macklemore’s performance at an Ed Sheeran concert.
After the quotation
He acknowledged Macklemore’s right to speak while urging venue owners to decide whom they would platform.
How this statement is classified
Greenblatt explicitly characterizes Macklemore’s speech as grotesque and calls for venue decision-makers to act, which is a direct condemnation of the conduct at issue.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Macklemore
More from this case
Read the full case“Glad to see Macklemore off Ed Sheeran’s tour. For years, Macklemore has pushed antisemitic tropes and demonized Israel and Israelis. Now he certainly has the 1A right to speak out and express his views, but demonizing Jews and Israelis shouldn’t be rewarded.”Read statement
“The moral narcissism of this guy. People don’t generally pay to go to concerts (certainly not Ed Sheeran ones) to get lectured by a dropkick about geopolitics, and objecting to that doesn’t make them bad people. It’s like giving a speech about cancer at someone’s wedding and then saying well cancer is more important than your feelings and so it’s my right and duty to give a speech about cancer and if you complain about it you obviously don’t care about cancer. There are layers of logical fallacy here. As I’ve noted before, sufferers of Israel derangement syndrome think that everybody else should be as deranged as they are, and that those who are not are morally inferior.”Read statement
“This will backfire spectacularly on Kraft et al (and proponents of the current Israeli government around war in Gaza). Most of us were unaware of Macklemore’s on-stage advocacy. Now, in the aftermath of this move by Sheeran (direct result of Kraft’s ultimatum), Macklemore is going to get an insane amount of positive earned media.”Read statement