Jonathan Harounoff
Role at the time: Author and journalist writing a signed opinion column
Condemned
Statement summary
Harounoff argued that a support act borrowing the headliner's audience for one-sided political advocacy is different from an artist expressing convictions through their own music, and that Sheeran's audience had not come for it.
“there is a difference between an artist's own convictions seeping through his or her own music and a guest performer using someone else's massive audience to deliver a reductive, one-sided take on one of the most contested conflicts in the most turbulent region in the world. Audiences paid for an Ed Sheeran masterclass, not for a lecture on the Middle East or an anti-Israel rally.”
Open source (opens in a new tab)Ed Sheeran fans came for his music, not Macklemore's anti-Israel diatribeOpinion column, middle section responding to the argument that concerts are never neutral spaces.
Signed opinion column in The Jewish Chronicle. The byline note identifies Harounoff as an award-winning British author and journalist and Israel's former international spokesperson at the United Nations.
Why we used this label
Writing about the MetLife set, Harounoff rejects the performance as a reductive and one-sided use of another artist's platform. He criticises the conduct under scrutiny rather than disputing what was said.