To feel sorry for Ed Sheeran.....

But I didn't say his art should be censored. I said there is a reasonable expectation about what you're going to encounter at an Ed Sheeran concert. Macklemore is completely free to make political art and people are completely free to choose whether they want to attend it. That's different from unexpectedly turning someone else's concert into a platform for it.

Of course it's fair. Why should art be censored so that everybody feels comfortable? Lots of art makes people feel uncomfortable. Sometimes that's the entire point. Once you start deciding that oh actually this time 'comfort' matters more than freedom of expression then you've opened the door and before you know it it can't be shut again. Either we don't censor artists or we do. Either people's comfort comes before art and freedom of expression or it doesn't. Who should get to decide in which cases 'comfort' matters more than the right to freedom of expression? It seems the answer to that is becoming Billionaires and that's something everybody should be worried about.

I don't think “people don't have a right to feel comfortable at all times” is fair in this context. Of course, nobody has a right to go through life never hearing something that makes them uncomfortable. But I do think people who have paid a lot of money to attend an Ed Sheeran concert have a reasonable expectation that they aren't going to find themselves unexpectedly drawn into an extremely contentious political issue, with war imagery, and then specifically addressed as Jews. That's very different from saying nobody should be allowed to express political views because they might make someone uncomfortable.

Nobody was asking Ed to stand for the eradication of Israel. They were asking that him and his 'successful' mate don't censor artists who have said nothing wrong. There was nothing wrong with Macklemores words, he didn't say anything hateful. Some people were 'uncomfortable' and that's ok, it's fine to feel uncomfortable sonetimes, people don't have a right to feel comfortable at all times but there is a right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression. People like Kraft want the US to turn into somewhere like Iran where freedom of expression is taken away and use their billions to do it. Kraft is out there acting like the Taliban putting restrictions on music performances and public expression.

You stand for censorship and the deplatforming of views that you don't like. That's fine. You can probably understand why lots of people find that idea pretty troubling.

I want to add something to my earlier comment about Pink’s statement with the comment “I refuse the binary.” Because to me that’s the broader point than just this particular incident.

There are positions between Israel can do nothing wrong and Israel shouldn't exist, between nothing is antisemitic and all criticism of Israel is antisemitic, and between Macklemore should shut up and everyone at an Ed Sheeran concert should welcome his political comments.

It should be possible to listen to why someone holds a different position, and try to understand where they're coming from, without having to agree with them. I wish there was a bit more of that in discussions like this.

“or he is a zionist sympathiser...in which case he should never be heard from again.”
This is exactly what Pink was trying to say with “I refuse the binary.”
What exactly do you mean by “Zionist sympathiser”? Because Jewish people don't divide neatly into acceptable anti-Zionist Jews and unacceptable Zionist ones, who apparently “should never be heard from again”. And we shouldn't have to establish which sort of Jew we are before our voices are worth listening to.

If he has advisors, pr people then they're either shit at their job, he is not listening or he is a zionist sympathiser...in which case he should never be heard from again.

Bloody hell, @Whoisit101. So anyone who believes or sympathises with Israel’s right to exist - not condoning its actions, just acknowledging that there’s a place in this world for a Jewish homeland, should ‘never be heard from again’?!!! And you wonder why people are frightened by someone calling out Free Palestine at a concert…

Artists voice opinions in their art, don’t they? If you think about it half of all concerts might have to be cancelled if artists cannot say anything political. ES doesn’t want politics on stage which is perfectly fine too. He isn’t the kind of artist who really has a message. Does he not sing mostly about love?

So anyone who does business with Jewish people is a ‘Zionist sympathiser’?

Sounding a bit Adolf, there.

@ImmortalNowBabyDoll
And this proves exactly what I was just saying in my post above. You're debating Israel's actions. I'm talking about the experience of Jewish people in an audience who didn't come there to debate Israel. Those are two different things.

100% this.

Keep politics off stage is my view.
Artistes can voice opinions in interviews or in writing but please, if you are a singer Sing and entertain.
Life in USA is different to here and different again in Europe.

I've now skimmed through the entire thread and, from what I've read, apart from one passing reference very early on, nobody seems to have mentioned Pink's response to this. That's not really surprising because her response seems to have been noticeably missing from a lot of the UK coverage of the story. That's unfortunate because she articulated really well what I'm actually trying to say here.

Pink is Jewish. She was very clear that she wasn't objecting to the words "Free Palestine", wasn't asking for Macklemore to be silenced and wasn't saying that everything Israel does is OK. She also made clear that she cares about what is happening to Palestinians and wants innocent people protected. But she also said that she should be able to say, as a Jewish mother, that what happened at that concert frightened her and people she loves, without that being taken to mean that she supports what is happening in Gaza. She said: "You don't get to decide that for us." And I think that's the part almost completely missing from this thread.

Every attempt to discuss whether Jewish people at an Ed Sheeran concert might reasonably have felt uncomfortable seems to turn immediately back into an argument about whether what is happening in Gaza is terrible. Those are two different questions.

Pink also said: "You don't have to agree with one thing Israel's government does" to care about a Jewish family at a concert feeling frightened or targeted. That's it really. That's the point I've been trying to make. I'm not asking anyone here to change their opinion about Israel, Gaza, Macklemore or "Free Palestine". I'm saying that people should consider that Jewish people were also in that stadium and that they are entitled to describe how that experience felt to them. Telling them that Macklemore meant to reassure them doesn't make their reaction wrong. Telling them that they shouldn't have been uncomfortable in the first place because his comments were about Gaza rather than Jews doesn't make their reaction wrong either.

Any time someone discusses Jewish experience, the conversation immediately becomes another debate about Israel's actions in Gaza.

That's why Pink's statement resonated with me so much. She managed to articulate something I've been struggling to explain. I genuinely think it's worth reading her whole statement rather than just the headlines about her criticising Macklemore: https://ew.com/pink-responds-to-backlash-after-sharing-post-criticizing-macklemore-politics-12116790

Epstein Club billionaires so where is the line drawn with this? I use Microsoft office & take Tesla ubers, should I not be doing this as I’m supporting those same billionaires?

No it isn’t hypocritical for a person to want to express opinions about one thing but not another. He doesn’t have to express opinions about the war in Gaza! Maybe he is concerned about the rise in antisemitism in the UK, maybe he doesn’t want his Jewish fans to feel uncomfortable.

We don’t see a rise in attacks on Russian people/organisations in the UK as a result of the war in Ukraine, do we? So it’s not as sensitive a subject.

I absolutely abhor the idea of cancelling anyone because of their opinion and of course there are many people with reprehensible opinions. I’ve seen Sheeran in concert. I’ve enjoyed his music. It wasn’t just that he was keeping politics out of his shows it was the fact that he was allowing his tour and choices to be controlled by Epstein Club billionaires and it had nothing to do with antisemitism. Also he has spoken out about Ukraine so clearly he does have opinions. It’s these things that I think make him look very hypocritical, which is sad and I do feel sorry for him because I am 100% sure that he regrets what happened (even if for selfish reasons) and the crowds baying for his blood won’t have any kind of climbdown.

It shouldn't be scary for anyone to hear someone saying, "Israel should stop murdering thousands of babies."

He should cancel his concerts so that disappointed young fans learn there are consequences to virtual signalling. We'll soon find out if their principles are more important.

Hilarious.

And Hamas has expressed pleasure at the actions of Andy Burnham in sanctioning the settlements. Neither thing is really funny.

And those members of the Israeli government rightly get a lot of criticism for their violent words.

Does that justify “death to the IDF” chanted at festivals etc? I don’t think so.

Don’t people want to be better than extremists?