Recently, moral clarity was brought to an age-old conflict: Ed Sheeran has weighed in on Israel/Palestine.
Finally.
In an 𝕏on-stage statement addressing the controversy that began after Macklemore’s remarks about Palestine, the English singer got on record with his thoughts about the conflict. Though Sheeran called suffering in Gaza “catastrophic, unjustifiable, and disproportionate,” and criticized “systemic injustice” in the West Bank, his words failed to satisfy many Palestine supporters. Some are 𝕏boycotting Sheeran, and the journalist Mehdi Hasan 𝕏called Sheeran a “hypocrite” for having 𝕏commented on Ukraine but only mentioned Palestine under duress. People wanted Sheeran to speak out, but now that he’s spoken, some don’t like what he said.
But what Sheeran *didn’t *say speaks volumes. Because while the Halifax-born songsmith lamented the loss of both Israeli and Palestinian lives, Sheeran remained conspicuously silent about a far more deadly conflict: The Ethiopian/Tigray conflict. Why no words about that, Ed? Is it because the victims are Black? It’s hard to draw any other conclusion. It seems that when a conflict is big news in the West, Ed Sheeran is hot in the pants to grab a microphone and give us his two cents, but when the suffering is in Africa, the singer falls conspicuously silent.
The fighting between Tigray nationalists in northern Ethiopia and forces in the region is widely believed to be one of the 21st century’s most deadly conflicts. It is also not over: A 2022 peace treaty is unraveling at the very moment that Sheeran warbles his way through “Shape of You” in front of packed stadiums as if nothing is happening. I’ve done an intense search of Sheeran’s public statements and found nothing criticizing the Ethiopian National Defense Force for its conduct during the capture of Mekelle, nor any assignation of blame for the breakdown of the Pretoria Peace Agreement.
Not. A. Word.
Which is enough to make anyone wonder: Whose side are you on, Ed? Are you *trying *to make the conflict worse? Did you see the carnage that accompanied the war’s expansion into the Afar region and think “Haha, GOOD,” possibly while touching yourself? Are you tight-lipped because you have a twisted desire to see Tigrayan villagers expelled while the Amhara ethnicity asserts its dominance? Just what the fuck is your sick game here, you mumble-mouthed ginger Nazi? How do we even know that you didn’t ride a tank into the Tigray capital in 2020 and order troops to commit war crimes — I’d like to see proof that you didn’t!
Sheeran is symptomatic of a genre that has long chosen to softly croon while the world burns. Where is the Jack Johnson ballad about the fighting in Sri Lanka? What report has Bruno Mars issued about ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in western Myanmar? This has been the shameful standard among mellow singer-songwriters since Frankie Valli chose to blithely sing “Big Girls Don’t Cry” on *The Ed Sullivan Show *while the Mutawakkilite government was overthrown in Yemen. I guess the message to the oppressed people of the world is clear: In your moment of need, don’t reach out to Sam Smith or Jason Mendes because they will not lift a fucking finger to help.
Thank God *some *entertainers know what’s required at this critical moment — at virtually the same instant that Sheeran was speaking in Philadelphia, children’s entertainer Miss Rachel posted this on Instagram:
Hear hear, Ms. Miss Rachel. I noticed that you left out Ethiopia, and I’m curious as to what action you demand in response to the highly complex conflict in the Congo, but the sentiment is appreciated. Now if we could just get Raffi, Blippi, and a solid majority of The Wiggles to make similar statements, world peace would surely be at hand.
But we’ll have to achieve peace without help from Ed “Emperor of Bones” Sheeran. He seems content to travel the world on a raft of charred corpses sailing in a river of blood as long as he gets to play his little songs. And if fighting breaks out again in Iraq, or if the Balkans re-disintegrate into wars of ethnic cleansing, I know what auburn-haired folk-pop star I’ll look to as the cause. Sheeran has shown us who he is. And it’s enough for any decent person to know that the next stop on his tour should be a cold jail cell in The Hague.
