Yoni Goldstein: Macklemore’s cancellation is no victory for the pro-Israel crowd

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If there is one thing everyone seems to agree about when it comes to the latest case of cancel culture run amok in the arts world, it’s that singer Ed Sheeran is a good guy.

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“Ed is my friend. I’ve known him for 13 years … I consider him a brother,” the rapper Macklemore wrote after he was booted from Sheeran’s ongoing stadium tour. The Irish singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe, one of four artists that left the tour after Macklemore was dropped, said, “Ed has been a friend to me and has changed my life, I could never thank him enough.” Danish duo Lukas Graham, another of the bands that pulled out, wrote that they “love Ed” and are “grateful for everything we’ve shared.”

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Macklemore was ousted from Sheeran’s tour after his performance on Sept. 4 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where he wore a keffiyeh and went on a long rant full of “Free Palestine” highlights during his set.

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That prompted Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the NFL’s New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium southwest of Boston, to let Sheeran’s camp know that Macklemore — and by extension Sheeran, if he kept Macklemore on as his opening act — was barred from playing there. Kraft then apparently took it a step further, marshalling support from other stadium owners to bar Macklemore, calling the tour’s continued viability into question.

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And then the other acts bowed out in support of Macklemore. The ball is now in Sheeran’s court: which pressure — the pro-Palestine crowd or the pro-Israel one — will he succumb to?

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It is tempting to separate Macklemore from the other, significantly lesser-known artists who came to his defence. Macklemore appeared in May 2014 at a U.S. concert dressed in a black suit, dark wig, fake beard and large prosthetic nose. His latest tour has featured imagery that appears to conflate Israel with the Nazis. He rails against Israel on stage all the time.

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By contrast, Rowe and Lukas Graham’s greatest sins against Jews and their allies are tiny: a couple of posts by niche artists in favour of free speech with a “Free Palestine” here and there aren’t going to hurt anyone.

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Would it be better if Macklemore wasn’t a thing? I wouldn’t miss him. But in reality, he gets an estimated 34-million monthly listeners on Spotify. It’s nowhere near Sheeran, at 81-million monthly listens, but any artist would kill for that kind of attention. He is a popular, mainstream rap star. And now he has been shut out of a major touring spectacle because of being very anti-Israel and sometimes obviously antisemitic. I’m sure he’ll learn the right lessons from this experience.

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Yes, you can argue that there’s nothing to see here — that freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from the consequences of speech, that Robert Kraft and his friends are perfectly within their rights to decide who does and doesn’t perform at their stadiums. These are perfectly reasonable, maybe even heroic, acts for societal good made by smart people willing to stand up for what they believe is right. Besides, the other side gets our people cancelled every chance they get.