Robert Kraft’s attempts to silence Macklemore have backfired spectacularly | Arwa Mahdawi

A few weeks ago, the worst thing you could say about Ed Sheeran was that his music was a bit bland. A Guardian music writer once compared it to “aural wallpaper”. Which was a little bit rude to wallpaper: there are some very interesting designs out there!

I don’t need to tell you what people are saying about Sheeran now, do I? The pop star has been in the news for days after he apparently crumbled when billionaire Robert Kraft demanded Macklemore be pulled from his tour because of the rapper’s pro-Palestine advocacy.

As if he didn’t already look pathetic enough, Sheeran then released a statement throwing Macklemore under the bus. “After Macklemore’s performances at my New Jersey shows, venues on my upcoming tour dates communicated that they would pull the shows if he was still supporting,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram. Macklemore, he said, had “asked to join my tour last year and I agreed, because I respect him as an artist”. (In other words: “I barely know the guy! Macklemore begged to be on my tour and I was kind enough to say yes!’)

The pop star also gave the both-sides treatment to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and he said he didn’t like to be “political”. Except, of course, when it comes to causes like Ukraine, which he knows he won’t get into any sort of trouble for supporting. I won’t rehash everything that’s been said about Sheeran’s cowardice, but please enjoy this viral TikTok where a woman called Erin Tatum cheekily welcomes Sheeran to the disability community. “My back is full of metal,” she says, “so I too know exactly what it feels like when your spine doesn’t work like it used to! Free Palestine.”

Kraft isn’t the only billionaire trying to stifle criticism of Israel and stamp out speech: it’s a prevailing theme of our times. Pro-Israel billionaires like Kenneth Griffin have used their donation money to pressure universities like Harvard to oppose students’ criticism of Israel. Meanwhile our billionaire president and his administration have aggressively cracked down on pro-Palestinian protesters, sanctioned law firms perceived to be political enemies, restricted how news outlets cover the White House, and interfered with academic freedom at higher education institutes.

The Trump administration had also updated its immigration guidelines so foreigners could potentially be denied a green card for expressing anti-American or anti-Israeli political opinions. As the ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz has noted: “We are seeing the gravest assault on freedom of speech at least since the McCarthy era.”

Normally news stories about billionaires trying to stamp out free speech are depressing. But watching Kraft’s intimidation attempts backfire on him and his little buddy Ed has been an absolute joy to watch. It seems Kraft didn’t realize that, for some people, morality is more important than money. It seems he didn’t foresee that all of Sheeran’s opening acts and his live band would withdraw in solidarity with Macklemore and Palestine, amplifying the pro-Palestinian statements that he was so desperate to quash. “I cannot stand by and allow billionaires to use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide and who highlight the savage murder of children,” the Irish singer Aaron Rowe said in a statement announcing his departure from the tour.

Kraft may have succeeded in removing Macklemore from Sheeran’s tour, but he hasn’t silenced him. Macklemore, to his credit, has kept trying to steer the conversation back to what is happening to Palestinians, rather than what is happening to Sheeran’s brand. On Wednesday, Macklemore said he’d donate the entirety of the $1m he has earned from Sheeran’s Loop tour to organizations supporting Palestinians and urged Kraft to match his donation. Kraft responded by saying Sheeran had “called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis”. He did not specify if he would do this or who he might donate to. Kraft also insisted he wasn’t trying to diminish the “suffering of innocent Palestinians”; he just didn’t want to “obscure the responsibility of Hamas”.

There is only one person trying to obscure responsibility here, and that is Kraft. What is happening in Gaza and the West Bank cannot be glibly boiled down to a conflict against Hamas that has resulted in unfortunate suffering. It is, as many experts and human rights organizations, have said, a genocide that US taxpayers are helping to fund. There are no real plans for peace or Palestinian self-determination on the horizon: the goal seems to be cleansing all the Palestinians from the territory so Trump can build luxury buildings.

As Macklemore has stated, the focus of this story shouldn’t be on pop stars, it should be on what is happening to Palestinians. So let me recount just a few of the things that have happened recently. Starting with last weekend, when a 27-year-old woman who was almost eight months pregnant was shot in the head in Gaza by Israeli forces, while she was sitting in her tent. Both Iman Shalouf and her unborn baby died a few hours later. At least nine other people were killed in the span of 48 hours during what the media still persists in calling a ceasefire (or sometimes, if they’re being daring, “a fragile ceasefire”.)

Kids continue to be killed in Gaza at staggering rates. Earlier this week, Unicef detailed attacks on multiple children over the past seven days including “sisters Bana, 6, and Lana, 12, [who] were killed alongside their parents in an airstrike in Beit Lahia while they slept”. And healthcare facilities continue to be targets. On Tuesday, a Medical Aid for Palestinians-supported facility in northern Gaza came under fire from Israeli quadcopters when a UN delegation was visiting the facility. A 65-year-old patient was killed.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, violent settler attacks, encouraged and enabled by the Israeli government, continue, as the economy is systematically being throttled. On Monday, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a report called The Elimination Project detailing the “comprehensive mechanism of elimination that works to dismantle the conditions for continued Palestinian existence in the West Bank, while deepening Jewish control and supremacy in an irreversible manner”.

It’s stories like this, I’d wager, that Kraft doesn’t want Macklemore drawing attention to. He hasn’t succeeded in his efforts on this particular occasion, but I can’t stress enough that this isn’t the end of it. The Trump administration and many of its billionaire backers remain intent on destroying our freedom of speech and restricting criticism of Israel.

Pretty soon people will stop talking about Ed Sheeran. Attempts to control what we can talk about will continue.