Macklemore could have been honest about his intentions up front. He chose not to be

Tell the audience what they are buying.

People buying concert tickets should be told if the show will include planned political messaging, and what that message will be. Promoters and venues should be told too. This is not censorship. It asks performers to say what they intend to advocate before taking the audience’s money.

Macklemore said a major reason for joining Ed Sheeran’s tour was to tell stadium audiences “Free Palestine”. The political message was planned, not spontaneous: by his own account, it was a reason for joining the tour.  Why should either performer object to making that purpose clear to promoters, venues and customers before tickets go on sale?

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The artist remains free to speak. The customer can choose whether to pay to attend. Advance notice gives the political message more publicity, not less. What it removes is the opportunity to deliver it to paying customers who did not know it was part of the show.

But “Free Palestine” is not a clear statement of a political position. Does it mean ending Israel’s presence in Gaza and the West Bank, does it mean a Palestinian state alongside Israel, or a Palestinian state replacing Israel? Those are different demands.

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Calling for an end to the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza need not mean opposing Israel’s existence. Rejecting Zionism goes further. Zionism is the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish national state in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland. It does not mean supporting every Israeli government, military action or settlement.

To oppose Zionism in that sense is to oppose Jewish statehood there. That is not merely a demand for Israel to behave differently. It is a demand for a different political order in which Israel no longer exists as a sovereign Jewish state.

The distinction is important because organised Palestinian advocacy does include opposition to Zionism, not just opposition to the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza: the Palestine Solidarity Campaign makes that explicit.   We should not assume that everyone chanting “Free Palestine” means the same thing. They should say. We should ask.

Macklemore says his message is about peace, dignity and equality, and that criticism of Israel is not criticism of Jewish people.  But that does not answer the question. Does he accept Israel’s existence as a sovereign Jewish state?

Without that clarity, saying this is “not criticism of Jewish people” is hollow, patronising and demeaning. Using a stage and a vast audience to argue that Jews should have no nation-state in their ancestral homeland goes beyond criticism. It denies their national sovereignty and a key part of Jewish identity for most Jews today. So do not tell Jews that this is not about them if your real objective is to deny them their State.

If your “Free Palestine” means ending Israel as a Jewish state, do not soft-soap it with promises that Jews can live as a protected minority with equal rights. Israel exists precisely because Jews know where that leads.

If artists want to speak up, fine. Why not? But tell us before we buy tickets. Tell the promoters and venues too. And journalists and commentators: do not give them a free ride. Do not assume “Free Palestine” is only about Gaza and the IDF. Ask whether it means the destruction of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state. If that is the demand, explain why it is not antisemitic.