By Connor Juracek, Staff Writer
Pop singer Ed Sheeran is in a heated controversy after Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran’s “Loop” Tour for his pro-Palestinian speech at an earlier concert.
Sheeran was encouraged by billionaire, Zionist, stadium owner Robert Kraft, who previously hired Sheeran to sing at his wedding, to remove Macklemore from all performances for the rest of the tour. Sheeran did nothing to stop it or speak out against it. Fans and non-fans alike are outraged at Ed Sheeran’s total moral cowardice.
Immediately following the controversy, Sheeran posted an explanation to his Instagram profile. His language demonstrated zero moral courage and a complete unwillingness to stand for anything. He immediately tried to play the both-sides argument, saying that what is going on in Israel and Gaza is terrible.
Not choosing a side is choosing a side. By trying to appeal to everybody, Sheeran is fooling nobody. It is ridiculous that someone of his status and influence can act like they do not have an opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Rather than taking a side, Sheeran opted to state during his Philadelphia concert that what happened to Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was horrible, and that what is happening in Gaza is unjustifiable.
This is a common strategy among those who are complicit in Israel’s terrorism. They pretend to be bold by mentioning the atrocities in Gaza but refuse to state why this genocide is happening in the first place.
They refuse to tell the simple fact that what is going on in Gaza is a genocide being carried out by the Israeli military with the sole purpose of exterminating the Palestinians. Israel is using American weapons paid for by American taxpayer dollars to carry out these war crimes in a disproportionate response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
This conflict has resulted in the deaths of over 74,000 civilians, including 21,000 children. But stating the obvious is not allowed. It is not safe enough yet.
Sheeran says he does not use his platform for political purposes, yet just a few years ago he held a concert and fundraiser in Ukraine. It is not that he is not willing to be political; it is that he is not willing to have any conviction that is not aligned with the status quo.
The situation is proving to be a disaster for Sheeran. After Kraft pressured Sheeran to drop Macklemore, all of Sheeran’s openers quit the show, with only a handful remaining on the sinking, burning ship. Sheeran’s own band, who had been with him since 2016, walked out on him.
Staff Writer Connor Juracek elucidates the reasons as to why Ed Sheeran refusing to choose a side during an ongoing genocide is complicity with it.
On Sunday, Sheeran performed in Philadelphia, the first concert since the controversy began. He made a statement about the situation before the concert started.
His statement was a desperate attempt to distance himself from any sort of tangible stance, while again emphasizing that bad things are happening on both sides.
“I am deeply worried about the idea that venues should pre-approve content of performers.” Sheeran said, in regard to the Macklemore situation, He read this from a teleprompter.
Following his statement, Sheeran performed the concert as scheduled. He decided to end the concert with a fit of tears and another apology for his earlier apology.
It was as if addressing the biggest controversy of his career and one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time was some kind of major inconvenience to the people who gave him money and still chose to attend.
Sheeran is just another example of a celebrity who only speaks out when it is easy and safe to do so and is quiet when speaking out would be inconvenient. In a few decades, when everyone will claim to have always been against the genocide of the Palestinians, the world will remember what side of history the scum like Sheeran chose to stand on.