‘You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train’ – The Ed Sheeran Furore

Audio narration by Matt Alford

English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is a megastar. With over 128 million followers on Spotify, he ranks as the platform’s second most-followed artist, surpassed only by Taylor Swift. Sheeran’s official YouTube channel has more than 50 million subscribers. His shows are among the highest-attended live music events in history, often setting attendance records across North America, Europe and Australasia.

The US rapper Macklemore was a support act on Sheeran’s current LOOP Tour, before he spoke these words to an audience of nearly 90,000 people at the MetLife Stadium in the US on 4 September:

‘I’ve been trying to figure out a way to say this all day. One of the reasons why I wanted to come on this tour was because I wanted to stand up here on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: Free Palestine!

‘I said, Free Palestine!

‘I want those words to be loud and clear, so the people from Gaza, all the way to the occupied West Bank, know that we have not forgotten them.

‘And this next song was inspired by the bravery of Columbia University students who led an encampment movement that mobilised the entire world; open up hearts, myself included, so thank you to those students that risked their diplomas, that risked their tuition, that risked their scholarships, that stood up and said, no. CUAD students, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peace. Thank you, guys.

‘To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters: criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.

‘So I say Free Palestine! I say Free Lebanon! I say Free Cuba! I say Free Congo! Free Sudan! I say Free all people in America living in fear of this terrorist organization, ICE. None of us will be free until we are all free.’

A controversy was quickly manufactured by pro-Israel individuals and organisations to get Macklemore kicked off the tour. Ed Sheeran commented:

‘Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine.’

Macklemore filled in the gaps:

‘Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.’

Robert Kraft said the decision to bar Macklemore from Gillette Stadium, which was intended to be ‘a welcoming environment for all guests’, was made after the comments at the MetLife shows and ‘a broader history of rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community’.

But there was nothing antisemitic or hateful about what Macklemore said - he explicitly rejected antisemitism. And Kraft’s reference to ‘a broader history’ of ‘offensive’ comments in fact points to a single incident in 2014 when Macklemore wore fancy dress to mingle with an audience. He described the outfit:

‘On Friday night we had a surprise show at the EMP Museum in Seattle. Earlier in the day I thought it would be fun to dress up in a disguise and go incognito to the event, so that I could walk around unnoticed and surprise the crowd with a short performance. I picked up a bunch of fake mustaches and beards and grabbed a left over wig from our recent trip to Japan.

‘As it turns out the fake noses they sell at the costume store are usually big (my nose didn’t fit most of them). So I ended up with a big witch nose. I went with a black beard, because that’s the furthest color from my natural hair. Disguise was the intention. I personally thought I looked very ambiguous in terms of any “type” of person. Some people there thought I looked like Ringo, some Abe Lincoln. If anything I thought I looked like Humpty Hump with a bowl cut.’

Last week in the Guardian, Jonathan Freedland saw it differently:

‘Those outside the country appalled by what they see in Gaza or the West Bank sometimes struggle to know what they can do to help. The temptation is to rally around, say, the rapper Macklemore, calling out “Free Palestine” from Ed Sheeran’s stage – but that temptation fades a little when you see that the same Macklemore once performed dressed up as what looked unmistakably like an antisemitic caricature of a Jew, complete with a false, giant nose. He later apologised, saying a “Jewish stereotype” had never crossed his mind.’

This was classic Freedland: working hard to appear even-handed while crudely undermining the credibility of Israel’s critics. Why ‘crudely’? Because the use of ‘unmistakably’ suggested there is no doubt when in fact there is plenty of doubt. Someone deliberately dressing up as an antisemitic caricature in public would have to be in thrall to an extreme form of racism that would surely manifest itself at other times – it would not be a one-off. The Australian journalist Caitlin Johnstone commented:

‘If there had been other incidents of the artist expressing hateful opinions about Jews, one could make the case that he may have been lying about his intentions with the fake nose incident. But there are no such incidents… There is not one shred of evidence, anywhere, that these words [of explanation] were insincere.’

Freedland offered a similarly damning assessment in 2018 when he wrote in the Guardian:

‘Similar was the mural of hooked-nose bankers, counting their money on the backs of the poor. The artist himself said he had depicted Jews, but when Corbyn heard it was to be removed his response was “Why?” He literally could not see anything wrong with it. Again, that’s nothing to do with opposing Israel. That’s just old school antisemitism.’

Again, Corbyn ‘literally could not see anything wrong’ just as Macklemore’s outfit was ‘unmistakably’ antisemitic. In both cases, Freedland was suggesting absolute certainty where none existed. In fact, the biggest nose on display in the mural belonged to a very recognisable J.P. Morgan, an Episcopalian Christian. In her book, ‘Killing Corbynism – Zionism’s War on Socialism’, Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt wrote of the mural:

‘The artwork in question – Freedom for Humanity – False Profits – depicted caricatures of six white men playing a board game on the bent backs of faceless black and brown people. The central characters were identified by the artist as Andrew Carnegie, Aleister Crowley, JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, Lord Rothschild and Paul Warburg, only two of whom (Rothschild and Warburg) were Jewish.’ (Incarnadine Imprint, 2026, pp.120-121, our emphasis)

Smears aside, Macklemore appears to have a sensitive and astute understanding of these issues, as indicated by this comment on free speech:

‘And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying “Free Palestine” gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn’t protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.’

If Kraft, who is worth around $15 billion, cancelled Macklemore for defending Palestinian human rights, expressing solidarity with ‘all my Jewish brothers and sisters’, who is Robert Kraft?

This is as much as the BBC was willing to say:

‘Kraft, who is Jewish, confirmed on Monday that he had made the decision to bar Macklemore from the Gillette Stadium because his venue would not “provide a platform for hate speech”.

‘The tycoon accused the Grammy-winning rapper of having “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric”, which Macklemore denies.’

What the BBC was not willing to say was that Kraft had previously said:

‘After my family, there is nothing I’m more passionate about than the state of Israel and my Jewish identity.’

In 2019, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally awarded Kraft the Genesis Prize, often described as the ‘Jewish Nobel’. The prize recognises extraordinary contributions to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values and the State of Israel. Kraft donated the $1 million prize money to organisations dedicated to combating ‘antisemitism’ and the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Netanyahu described Kraft as:

‘A terrific champion of Israel and someone that I am deeply proud to call my friend.’

Kraft replied:

‘Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, not only for your kind words, but for your decades of leadership, but especially what you do for this state of Israel.’

In 2019, Kraft created the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, now known as the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate. He is a longtime supporter of Donald Trump. Sheeran sang at Kraft’s wedding in 2022 and described him as ‘super sweet’.

Kraft’s passionate support for Israel was similarly soft-pedalled in the Guardian, which mentioned:

‘…Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots and a prominent supporter of and donor to Israel …’.

A Guardian opinion piece by Laura Snapes went further, mentioning some of the reality but not Netanyahu’s personal friendship with Kraft:

‘Kraft is friends with Trump and is a major donor to Israel: Netanyahu said at a 2019 awards ceremony honouring Kraft that “Israel does not have a more loyal friend”.’

To her credit, Snapes commented that ‘losing financial and professional opportunities and creating inconvenience is precisely what it takes to show backbone and stand against genocide and billionaires crushing free speech’.

The Art Of Not Speaking Publicly…. Sometimes!

Sheeran said of the furore:

‘I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.’

He continued:

‘There is a reason I do not use my professional platform for politics - my audience includes young people, often children, of all backgrounds.

‘Those who come to my shows do not expect a political forum. I respect Macklemore’s strength of purpose to stand up and shout for what he believes.’

And yet, footage is freely available of Sheeran using one of his concerts as a political forum in support of Ukraine, even though many young people, including children, were present. Did the audience come to the show expecting literal Ukrainian flag-waving in a time of war?

In May 2022, the BBC reported:

‘Ukrainian group Antytila have teamed up with Ed Sheeran, releasing a new song partly filmed and recorded while serving in the war against Russia.

‘Antytila are one of the biggest musical acts in Ukraine but stopped working to join the military.

‘Proceeds from the song, released on Monday, will go to help the people of Ukraine.’

‘”Ed feels that pain, compassion and sympathy for Ukrainian people,” lead singer Taras Topolya told the BBC.’

Sheeran told the band and the people of Ukraine:

‘Firstly I just wanted to say to all Ukrainians, I love you, I stand with you and I’m so proud to be playing this fundraising event next week.’

The Ukrainian people certainly need all the love they can get. But so do the people of Palestine. What’s the difference?

Sheeran could hardly have been more political when he openly supported Jeremy Corbyn in 2017:

‘I love Corbyn. I love everything Corbyn is about.’

These comments, and the fact that he has known Macklemore for many years, suggest that Sheeran privately agrees with him.

Sheeran was engaging politically when he co-signed an open letter organised by the Human Rights Campaign, an initiative by musicians and entertainers urging the US Congress to pass legislation which aimed to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals. Sheeran also signed open letters to Theresa May in 2018 and Boris Johnson in 2021 about Brexit.

Sheeran’s claim that he is apolitical reminds us of the refusal of The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to ban Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2024. The EBU explained:

‘We firmly believe that the Eurovision Song Contest is a platform that should always transcend politics, promote togetherness and bring audiences together across the world.’

The EBU must simply have forgotten that Russia had been banned from the song contest since 2022 for its invasion of Ukraine.

In his first show since Macklemore had been dropped, Sheeran said the furore had placed him ‘in the middle of an important and passionate argument about free speech and the most complex political issue on the planet’.

Council Estate Media posted a very simple tweet (included at the top of this media alert), that put that comment in perfect perspective.

Sheeran said that what happened in Israel on 7 October was ‘horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain’, and what was happening in Gaza was ‘catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate’:

‘My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilian lives, of children’s lives, and this systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked.’

At the time they were taking place, would Sheeran have described earlier genocides as ‘the most complex political issue on the planet’? We suspect not. We also suspect he would not have tearfully apologised for commenting on those genocides, as he did after making the comments just cited:

‘The one thing that I would like to apologise for is the first bit of the show where it wasn’t about music… but that was something I felt like I needed to say… I do apologise for the first bit of the show. My shows are about this – they’re about unity, they’re about love, they’re about family, they’re about people coming together…’

With Gaza in ruins, with children making up 30 per cent of the dead, with the survivors living in rat-infested, bomb-blasted, tent cities dependent on aid, Sheeran’s tears had the unfortunate effect of placing his own stress and suffering front and centre as he sat on the stage in front of 50,000 fans. His repeated apologies make clear that he has no intention of commenting again at one of his shows on the ‘catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate’ suffering of the Palestinian people.

In the real world, love and unity – if they are more than cultural candyfloss - are based on honesty, the facing of uncomfortable truths; the facing and digesting of painful differences. They are not based merely on having ‘fun’, on ‘escapism’, on pretending the world outside does not exist.

Left progressives have all but universally denounced Sheeran as ‘spineless’, as a ‘coward’ and, in the words of Roger Waters, a ‘prick’.

Everybody knows that damning denunciations play supremely well on social media – nothing boosts the ego like the feeling that we are, not just right, but morally ‘superior’ to some wimpier soul – but it is going too far to promote bravery as the defining moral virtue. We are all cowards in different ways, and sometimes we are well-advised to be a coward. Sometimes the bravest amongst us are simply egotists driven by delusions of invincibility. And it is not, in truth, certain that Sheeran is merely guided by fear of personal negative consequences. It could be that, knowing how open dissent is relentlessly attacked, and outreach shut down, he really is trying to spread peace, love and understanding apolitically. Political progressives might find that hopelessly naïve, or self-serving drivel, but it has been the approach taken by the likes of Jesus, Buddha, Bodhidharma, Chuang tzu and Lao tse - people who had a vast and salutary impact on human civilisation and who were not political activists. Many of our leftist compassionate values actually have their roots in such teachings.

Nevertheless, the words of historian Howard Zinn ring very true, in our time more than ever:

‘You can’t be neutral on a moving train. The world is already moving in certain directions - many of them are horrifying. Children are going hungry, people are dying in wars. To be neutral in such a situation is to collaborate with what is going on.’ (Howard Zinn, ‘The Zinn Reader - Writings on Disobedience and Democracy’, Seven Stories Press, 1997, p.17)

In this age of genocide, corporate psychopathy and climate breakdown, to be neutral is indeed to collaborate, not just with ‘their’ annihilation, but with our own.

DE

David Edwards is co-editor of Media Lens and author of ‘A Short Book About Ego… and the Remedy of Meditation’, Mantra Books, 2025, available here. He is also author of the forthcoming Chomskyan, dystopian, mystical science fiction novel, ‘The Man with No Face’, to be published by Roundfire Books on 30 March 2027.

Get full access to Media Lens at medialens.substack.com/subscribe