Hate speech, meaning expression that targets people because of their religion or ethnicity, is at the center of a dispute between a stadium owner and a rapper. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced Macklemore will be removed from two Ed Sheeran shows scheduled later this month at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts, which Kraft also owns, citing what he called hate speech directed at the Jewish community.
Macklemore has been open about his views on the Gaza conflict. His protest song "Hind's Hall" calls former President Biden complicit and accuses the music industry of silence. The song references pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia University that critics have described as violent and illegal. He has regularly characterized what he calls a genocide in Gaza. The ban drew immediate reaction: all of Sheeran's other opening acts, along with the singer's own band, quit the tour in solidarity with Macklemore. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called the decision censorship of "the genocide in Gaza."
Kraft, who is Jewish, has since pledged $2 million toward humanitarian aid in the Israel-Gaza region and has held firm on the ban. Other venue owners have followed with similar restrictions on Macklemore.
Private venue, public debate
The dispute turns on a real legal line. The First Amendment restricts government from silencing speech. It does not prevent a private stadium owner from deciding who performs on his stage. The Mariners drew the same line two years ago, pulling Macklemore's song "Can't Hold Us" from the seventh-inning stretch after he said "F--- America" at a show in Seattle.
Bill Maher addressed the genocide framing on his HBO show "Real Time" last Friday. He argued that genocide, by definition, is an attempt to exterminate an entire population rather than the toll of a military conflict. He cited a Hamas figure of roughly 73,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli counterattacks since October 7, 2023, a number Hamas has not broken down between civilians and fighters, which Maher said represents about three percent of the Palestinian population. He set that against World War II, when nearly 99 percent of the three million Jews in Poland were killed.
The wider polling gives the dispute context beyond one music tour. A Gallup poll found more Americans now sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis. A separate study found nearly half of Americans struggle to distinguish American Jews from the Israeli government. The Anti-Defamation League recorded a 360 percent increase in antisemitic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel three Octobers ago. A 2025 American Jewish Committee poll found 91 percent of American Jews feel less safe, and 55 percent said they changed their behavior over the past year because of antisemitism.
Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, begins at sundown this Sunday.