Jonathan Greenblatt welcomes Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour
CEO of the Anti-Defamation League
“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.”
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 welcomes Macklemore’s removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour (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 posted after Macklemore was removed from the remaining U.S. dates of Ed Sheeran’s tour.
After the quotation
The post distinguishes Macklemore’s right to speak from whether the speech should be rewarded with a tour slot.
How this statement is classified
Greenblatt expressly approves the tour removal and describes Macklemore’s conduct as antisemitic and as demonizing Jews and Israelis, which is a direct condemnation.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Macklemore
More from this case
Read the full case“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
“It’s so incredibly disappointing that Macklemore, my constituent, was removed from Ed Sheeran’s tour because of his comments in support of the Palestinian people. We should all be outraged that powerful people are more upset about what an artist says than the displacement, starvation, and killing of innocent Palestinian children and families. Thank you, Macklemore, for speaking up. This is a moment for us to come together, find our moral conscience as a nation, and end this genocide.”Read statement