Ed, you’re inverted: more is expected of you

In September 2026, as antisemitism surges across the Western world, handing your stage to those who inflame division is not neutrality. It is a choice—and choices have consequences.

At Ed Sheeran’s two MetLife Stadium concerts in New Jersey on 4 and 5 September, opening act Macklemore transformed part of an enormously popular music event into a political rally. Wearing a keffiyeh, he called out “Free Palestine” before performing his protest song Hind’s Hall, while footage from Gaza, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and political messaging filled the stadium screens. He reportedly described Israel using the contested accusations of “apartheid” and “genocide” and praised the university encampment movement. The Israeli-American Council has since called upon Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the remaining tour dates.

Macklemore is, of course, entitled to his views. Freedom of expression includes the freedom to criticise Israel, advocate for Palestinians and oppose a war. It also includes the freedom of others to challenge selective narratives, misleading imagery and inflammatory allegations. Freedom of expression does not confer a right to someone else’s stage—and it certainly does not mean freedom from responsibility.

This was not some spontaneous, ambiguous gesture. Hind’s Hall is an explicitly political song written in support of the anti-Israel University encampments. It accuses Israel of genocide and apartheid, attacks American support for Israel and treats anti-Zionism as something wholly separate from antisemitism—despite the intimidation and exclusion experienced by many Jewish students around those very protests. Macklemore has pursued this campaign for years. In 2024, during a pro-Palestinian benefit performance in Seattle, he declared, “Fuck America.” He was subsequently removed from the Neon City Festival, while sporting organisations associated with him publicly distanced themselves from his increasingly divisive rhetoric.

None of that history was hidden. Macklemore did not arrive without a record. His activism is central to his public identity, and Hind’s Hall is one of his best-known political statements. Inviting him onto a stadium tour without establishing what he intended to do—or knowing and accepting it—was therefore more than an innocent oversight.

Several years ago, I wrote about three related but distinct leadership concepts: responsibility, accountability and culpability. Responsibility concerns what falls within a leader’s authority and control. Accountability means being answerable for what occurs within that domain. Culpability asks a more difficult question: how much blame is deserved?

I suggested three tests. Were you present or personally involved? What did you do once you learned what had happened? Should you reasonably have foreseen it? These principles emerged from military command, but they apply equally to political, corporate and cultural leadership.

Applied here, Ed Sheeran is unquestionably responsible and accountable for his tour. His name sells the tickets. His brand fills the stadium. His organisation selects the supporting acts, controls the screens and determines what is presented beneath the Loop Tour banner.

Culpability requires greater care. Did Sheeran know in advance that Macklemore intended to turn his opening set into an anti-Israel political presentation? Were the speech, song and accompanying visuals approved? If they were, then the responsibility is direct. If they were not, Sheeran is still accountable for what happened on his stage, but what he does next becomes decisive.

That is the second test of culpability: what did you do when you learned what had gone wrong?

A leader cannot always prevent a subordinate, employee or collaborator from exercising poor judgement. What a leader can do is respond. Silence after an event is itself a form of communication. It signals either agreement, indifference or an unwillingness to exercise authority. None is sufficient when Jewish communities are already confronting intimidation, vandalism, exclusion and violence.

The third test—reasonable foreseeability—is also uncomfortable. Given Macklemore’s established activism, his earlier performances of Hind’s Hall and the controversies surrounding his language, was such an intervention really unforeseeable? Selecting performers is not merely a matter of finding musicians who can entertain a crowd. It is an exercise in judgement and brand stewardship. Artists spend years building reputations. When they lend their names and platforms to others, they lend some of that accumulated trust as well.

This is not an argument that Palestinian suffering should be ignored. Every innocent life matters. It is an argument against presenting a brutal and complicated conflict through carefully selected images and slogans that erase Hamas, the atrocities of 7 October, the hostages and the continuing threats faced by Israelis. Compassion that recognises only one people’s pain is not universal compassion. It is partisanship dressed in humanitarian language.

Macklemore told Jewish listeners that criticism of Israel was not criticism of them. Yet the speaker alone does not determine the consequences of his message. Across the West, “Free Palestine” has too often accompanied the harassment of Jewish students, the targeting of synagogues and businesses, and demands for the elimination—not reform—of the world’s only Jewish state. Context matters. Effects matter. Jewish communities are entitled to judge the message not simply by Macklemore’s declaration of intent, but by the movement it encourages and the hostility they experience.

Ed Sheeran possesses an extraordinary gift and an extraordinary platform. His music has reached people across national, religious and political boundaries. That reach creates an opportunity to do what the finest artists do: acknowledge suffering without inflaming hatred, preserve human complexity and bring strangers together through something beautiful.

Take a page from Dolly Parton’s book, Ed. Lead with generosity, warmth and an instinct for the common humanity that exists beneath our arguments. Great artists need not be silent about difficult issues, but neither should they surrender their stages to ideological performances that divide audiences and deepen the fears of an already vulnerable minority.

Your tour. Your stage. Your responsibility.

What you do now will determine accountability—and culpability.

More is expected of you.

Colonel Michael Scott CSC Ret’d is a former Australian army officer and the founder of The 2023 Foundation, an initiative dedicated to combating antisemitism.