Finneas, who was due to join Sheeran for upcoming tour dates, argued artists \u201cmust not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have decided to withdraw from my upcoming tour dates with Ed Sheeran. I stand with Palestine and its people,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
Irish musician Aaron Rowe said he was leaving the tour despite his long friendship with Sheeran.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t take the decision lightly. Ed has been a friend to me and has changed my life,\u201d Rowe wrote.<\/p>\n
He could not support what he described as efforts by powerful figures to silence artists speaking about Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Irish folk group Beoga, who have worked with Sheeran for more than a decade, are departing as his touring band for the remaining US dates.<\/p>\n
Beoga said they remained friends with Sheeran and believed in \u201cdialogue as a means of progressing the plight of the Palestinian people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ed Sheeran and Macklemore have a longstanding friendship. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Danish pop band Lukas Graham also withdrew, saying people should be free to speak about war and civilian suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney doesn\u2019t give you the right to own the conversation,\u201d the band wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cNobody\u2019s bank balance should decide who gets to speak or which suffering we\u2019re allowed to acknowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stadium owner Robert Kraft did not deny Macklemore\u2019s accusations, NBC News reported. <\/p>\n
He said the decision was based on Macklemore\u2019s \u201crecent actions\u201d and \u201ca broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kraft said he was not trying to minimise Palestinian advocacy or diminish the suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same \u2013 peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finneas, who was due to join Sheeran for upcoming tour dates, argued artists \u201cmust not be silenced when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23503,74,5263,28157,13973,156,209722,48338,71,4516,296048,296478,157,111,139,69,1523,17944,693,25995,12062,13974,85382,137770,9939,1886,208,9938,3040,102,62265],"class_list":["post-601603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-acts","tag-after","tag-all","tag-dropped","tag-ed","tag-entertainment","tag-escalated","tag-fallout","tag-from","tag-loop","tag-macklemore","tag-macklemores","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-quitting","tag-rapper","tag-remaining","tag-removal","tag-sheeran","tag-sheerans","tag-solidarity","tag-states","tag-support","tag-tour","tag-united","tag-us","tag-with","tag-withdraw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}