Nobody owes Macklemore a stadium

A year and a half ago, my husband and I talked about safety before he decided to take our oldest daughter to a reggae concert. Not because we were concerned about her getting a contact high from all the other concertgoers smoking cannabis, but because there were certain to be “anti-war” protesters stationed outside, trying their hardest to “free Palestine” by protesting a Jewish American singer. Matisyahu, whose most famous song, “One Day,” is about peace, has faced protests, boycotts, and deplatforming attempts as he has crisscrossed the country since the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.I was reminded of that conversation this week as the world has suddenly become very concerned about free speech after singer Ed Sheeran finally booted his opening act, Macklemore, from his tour. Earlier this month, the tour made the news when Macklemore used his opening set to stage an extended lecture about the Middle East conflict. That was his design. During the show, he told the crowd that a major reason he wanted to join the tour was the opportunity to stand in stadiums and loudly proclaim “free Palestine.”The shows in New Jersey sparked a firestorm, and soon Sheeran was deluged with calls to replace his opening act. Ticketmaster received calls from concertgoers demanding refunds. This week, we learned that New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft worked with fellow venue owners to draw a line in the sand: If Macklemore stays on the tour, you’re unwelcome to use our venue. Kraft’s intercession forced Sheeran’s hand, and just two shows into an eight-show agreement, Macklemore was sent packing. In this Nov. 20, 2012, photo, American musician Ben Haggerty, better known by his stage name Macklemore, right, and his producer, Ryan Lewis, left, pose for a portrait at Irving Plaza in New York. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Invision/AP) On Tuesday, Sheeran released a statement on Instagram about his decision to drop Macklemore, “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.”He’s right: Fans bought tickets to see Sheeran, not Macklemore, and they certainly didn’t buy them to attend a lecture about Gaza. Macklemore understood that Sheeran’s fans weren’t willing participants — in fact, that was precisely the point. He wanted access to stadiums full of tens of thousands of people assembled by someone else, for something else, so that he could use them as a captive audience for his political message.Macklemore’s claim that his Gaza stance isn’t rooted in antisemitism doesn’t pass the smell test when evaluated in context to his past actions. In 2014, during a surprise performance of his hit song “Thrift Shop” about frugality at Seattle’s EMP Museum, Macklemore dressed up as an Orthodox Jew: a hooked nose, a hat, and a dark wig.Across the internet, after the announcement, handwringing ensued. The Free Press’s River Page posted, “Frankly I don’t understand why Israel supporters deploy this kind of heavy handed censorship from a PR perspective alone. It makes them look terrible. Nobody should have to defend Macklemore’s right to perform his awful music.” Actress and songwriter Stella Parton posted, “I’m here to sound the alarm… We are in a dire situation when a performer is pulled from a tour for simply calling out genocide in Gaza.”What’s telling about this sudden concern about censorship is how absent it has been when the targets have been artists who support Israel. Matisyahu had concerts canceled after pro-Palestinian activists targeted venues over his support for Israel. Last year, Michael Rapaport had a comedy show in Alabama canceled after the venue was inundated with messages and faced planned protests because of his vocal support for Israel and the hostages Hamas captured on Oct. 7. More recently, a Disturbed concert in Brussels was canceled after protests centered on Jewish frontman David Draiman and his support for Israel. There was remarkably little fretting about whether pro-Palestinian activists were ushering America or Europe into a new era of artistic censorship when Jewish performers were targeted.Nobody is stopping Macklemore from saying “free Palestine.” Nobody is preventing him from making music about Gaza, posting about Gaza, holding a rally about Gaza, or organizing an entire Macklemore tour devoted to Gaza. He will likely get a chance to do just that — on Tuesday, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, invited him to perform in the heavily Arab city.What happened here is that a Jewish stadium owner has simply decided he doesn’t have to provide his property as the venue, and Sheeran has decided he doesn’t have to provide his paying fans as a captive audience.It’s not just Kraft pushing back in the entertainment industry. Hollywood’s Jews are also pushing back against the intentionally inflammatory accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.Thousands of public figures recently signed a letter rejecting what they called the “genocide lie,” after celebrities including Mark Ruffalo wielded the accusation against Israel in a diatribe against the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. Paramount went on the offensive as well, issuing a lengthy statement, explicitly calling out Ruffalo’s antisemitism.Both Ruffalo and Macklemore wanted to weaponize the enormous platforms their fame has given them for a political cause, but they portray it as censorship when other people use their own platforms, money, property, or influence in response. They are quick to fall into antisemitic tropes and just as quick to complain when Jews call them out.Since Oct. 7, Jews have been the target of a campaign of hate, but community leaders have been tepid in their response. For the last several years, Kraft has employed a team of PR consultants to create meaningless marketing campaigns in the face of rising antisemitism. Now, finally, he’s fighting back with actual weight, and he didn’t have to spend a dime to achieve his first victory.DON’T TURN SAFETY NET PROGRAMS INTO SOCIAL ENGINEERINGThe tide has shifted with Ruffalo, and now Macklemore, and the message is now clear: Jews have stopped playing along. For years, Jews have been expected to accept a bizarre double standard in which boycotting Israelis was activism, protesting Jewish performers was free speech, but Jews pushing back is censorship.Artists such as Ruffalo and Macklemore want to pee on Jews’ legs and demand that Jews go along with the premise that it’s raining. Those days are over.