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Ed Sheeran’s tour implodes amid antisemitism row · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian, I'm Claire Harvey with
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: The Front's afternoon headlines. One of the world's biggest artists,
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  Speaker 1: Ed Sheeran, says his concerts are about love and unity,
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  Speaker 1: but now his United States tour has caused an almighty
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  Speaker 1: political and cultural ruckus, with accusations flying about censorship and racism.
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  Speaker 1: Sheeran agreed to a request by American rapper Macklemore to
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  Speaker 1: support him on the globe-spanning year-long tour for Sheeran's album Loop.
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  Speaker 1: But on September 5, at a stadium in New Jersey, McLemore,
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  Speaker 1: whose real name is Ben Hegarty, played a song dedicated
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  Speaker 1: to a Gazan child killed in the conflict between Israel
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  Speaker 1: and Hamas and declared his support for the Palestinian cause.
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  Speaker 2: Free Palestine. I said free Palestine. I want those words
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  Speaker 2: to be loud and clear so the people from Gaza
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  Speaker 2: all the way to the occupied West Bank know that
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  Speaker 2: we have not forgotten them.
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  Speaker 1: A day later, at the same venue, McLemore told Jewish
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  Speaker 1: members of the audience he was not attacking them but
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  Speaker 1: was criticising Israel.
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  Speaker 2: And I want to say this before I get into
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  Speaker 2: the song. I want to say this to all of
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  Speaker 2: my Jewish brothers and sisters. Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid,
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  Speaker 2: being against genocide. In no way is it a criticism
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  Speaker 2: of you. My message is for peace, love, for all
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  Speaker 2: human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.
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  Speaker 1: So I say free Palestine.
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  Speaker 2: I say free Lebanon, I say free Cuba, I say
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  Speaker 2: free Congo, free Sudan, free all people in America living
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  Speaker 2: in fear over this.
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  Speaker 1: Terrorist organisation, ICE. That prompted another of the world's biggest artists,
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  Speaker 1: the American singer Pink, to repost a meme criticising McLemore.
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  Speaker 1: Then Pink published a 1,300-word statement declaring that, as a
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  Speaker 1: Jewish woman, she believed McLemore's actions were anti-Semitic and said
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  Speaker 1: she'd been shocked in 2014 when the rapper appeared on
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  Speaker 1: stage wearing a black wig and fake beard and a
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  Speaker 1: prosthetic hooked nose. McLemore later apologised for that costume, saying
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  Speaker 1: he didn't mean to invoke a Jewish caricature, but agreed
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  Speaker 1: it could have been interpreted that way. Pink said she
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  Speaker 1: didn't buy McLemore's claim that Jewish people shouldn't feel he
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  Speaker 1: was attacking them when he attacked Israel. She said that
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  Speaker 1: as a Jewish mother, she felt it was her right
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  Speaker 1: to decide what to be offended by. Then came in
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  Speaker 1: Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots
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  Speaker 1: American football team and a Democrat who is close to
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. Kraft is a strong supporter of Israel and
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  Speaker 1: reportedly rang Ed Sheeran to say McLemore wasn't welcome to
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  Speaker 1: play at a forthcoming gig at a stadium his company
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  Speaker 1: owns in Massachusetts. According to McLemore, Kraft then mobilised other
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  Speaker 1: stadium owners to swing in behind him. The tour's promoter
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  Speaker 1: told McLemore he was out of a gig. Sheeran released
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  Speaker 1: a statement saying he supported McLemore's right to free speech
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  Speaker 1: and that he wasn't responsible for him being cancelled. But
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  Speaker 1: by then, the tour was falling apart around him. The
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  Speaker 1: other support acts, including Billie Eilish's brother Phineas, a Danish
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  Speaker 1: artist called Lucas Graham and Irish singer Aaron Rowe, as
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  Speaker 1: well as an Irish folk band called Beoga, quit the tour.
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  Speaker 1: Sheeran says he has his own private views about the
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  Speaker 1: Israel-Hamas conflict and he chooses to use his fame not
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  Speaker 1: to shout, but to try to maintain diplomacy and keep
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  Speaker 1: conversations open. Check out that story live right now at
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: theaustralian.com.au and come back to the front first thing in
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the morning for a story that brings it all home.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: The surgeons and nurses who fought vainly to save a
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: 10-year-old Jewish girl shot in the Bondi Beach Massacre. That's
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  Speaker 1: right here Thursday morning.