The price of taking a pro-Palestine stand in Hollywood

🎙️ Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, taking a side in public has come with a steep bill in the entertainment business. Hollywood split within weeks, and stars on each side signed rival open letters. Pro-Palestinian actors and musicians have lost roles, agents, and tour slots, while pro-Israel stars have mostly lost followers. The latest bill was handed out to Macklemore on Ed Sheeran’s stage, and it opened the conversation up for debate once again.

💡 The Long View is EnterpriseAM Weekend’s monthly space for the essay — a take on something worth sitting with. Not news, not a how-to. Just a question the week left behind.

The Macklemore debacle, explained

Macklemore learned the hard way that stadiums have owners, and these owners quite dislike the words “genocide” and “FreePalestine.” On Friday, 4 September, he opened for Ed Sheeran at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, called for a “FreePalestine,” and played Hind’s Hall, his 2024 song named after Hind Rajab. Within days, he was off the rest of the US leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour, where he still had eight shows to play of the 10 remaining dates.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft confirmed he barred Macklemore from Gillette Stadium over his MetLife remarks and what Kraft called a “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.” Promoter Messina Touring Group also said venue owners on the coming dates refused to host a show with Macklemore on the bill. Sheeran — who calls himself apolitical — later put the decision on the promoter.

But things didn’t pan out well for Sheeran. Following the backlash from Macklemore’s departure, Sheeran’s supporting acts all abandoned their tour stops; Aaron Rowe, Finneas, Lukas Graham, and Irish folk band Beoga — which also served as Sheeran’s touring band — quit, taking every scheduled opener with them.

The stand-off then turned into a fundraiser, with Macklemore later taking to his own stage to make a stand. Macklemore pledged the USD 1 mn he netted from the tour to Palestinian organizations and challenged Kraft to match it. Kraft said Sheeran had asked him to match a USD 2 mn donation for aid in the region, and he agreed. Later in September, Macklemore announced a three-city “FreePalestine” tour, with all proceeds pledged to Palestinian causes; the dates, set for the last week of October, were immediately sold out.

But not everyone got lucky

Macklemore’s case was maybe the loudest in a three-year struggle, but it definitely wasn’t the only one of its kind. In November 2023, Spyglass Media Group fired Melissa Barrera from the Scream franchise over Instagram posts that called for a ceasefire, including a repost accusing Israel of genocide. Spyglass said its zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism covers “false references to genocide.”

The same month, United Talent Agency dropped Susan Sarandon after she stated that Jewish Americans afraid for their safety were getting a taste of what Muslims in the US live with, later apologizing for the remark. At Creative Artists Agency, Maha Dakhil lost her post as co-head of the motion picture department over an Instagram post on genocide denial. She stayed on as an agent, however, with her biggest client Tom Cruise in her corner.

Other cases brought the issue into context a little more: Hacks actor Poppy Liu said a six-year TV contract was pulled without explanation, and she believes her activism is the reason. Ashlee Margolis, founder of PR firm The A-List, sparked outrage after telling staff to refrain from working with anyone who is pro-Palestine; she later emphasized this by stating that talent who accuse Israel of genocide is “someone we will pause on working with.”

Mark Ruffalo, known amongst Marvel fans for playing the Hulk, also ruffled some feathers for his unyielding support of Palestine. Ruffalo came under fire in May 2021 for posts suggesting Israel was committing genocide; the star later apologized for these posts, calling them inaccurate and inflammatory. Four years later, he was among thousands who signed the Film Workers for Palestine pledge, which commits its signatories to avoid Israeli film institutions implicated in genocide and apartheid.

But the price to pay now reaches beyond Hollywood. Normal People author Sally Rooney and her publisher, Faber, agreed on Wednesday, 14 October to stop selling her books in the UK in any format lest it be qualified as a “serious criminal offence” under current UK legislation. The UK had declared direct-action group Palestine Action a terrorist organization in July 2025, and Rooney has said she will keep funding it, so Faber says it has no lawful way to pay her UK earnings. That shuts her out of a market where she has sold about 2.3 mn books, over a third of her 6 mn worldwide.

The other side

Pro-Israel stars have mostly paid the price in followers and boycott calls. Noah Schnapp posted in October 2023 that “you either stand with Israel or you stand with terrorism,” before appearing in a video that made the rounds on social media with “Zionism is sexy” stickers. He also liked a video mocking Palestinian victims, which led to calls for a boycott of Stranger Things’ final season. He later posted a since-deleted video on TikTok saying that his views on the issue had been misconstrued. His Netflix contract stayed intact, and he finished the series as one of its central characters.

Jerry Seinfeld was also one of the artists Hollywood didn’t exactly punish for his pro-Israel views, even though he drew protests at his stand-up shows and a student walkout at Duke University. Seinfeld later turned a heckle into a punchline; at a show in Chicago on Friday, 9 October, protesters in the audience called him an apologist for genocide. When one shouted that 74k Palestinians had been killed, Seinfeld shot back, “I am racist; it’s a genocide; I’m into it.” He danced on stage as security removed one protester, and told another he would find out what their ticket cost and send the money to Israel. Several Portuguese artists had already pulled out of the Lisbon International Humour Festival over his support for Israel, as the comedian is still booked to close it on 1 November.

The closest thing to a contractual hit on that side came from hosts worried about protests. Brett Gelman had book signings canceled over safety concerns tied to his pro-Israel advocacy. No studio or agency has acted against a pro-Israel star the way Spyglass and United Talent Agency did, and no promoter has so far done what Messina did to Macklemore.

The road ahead

One word keeps splitting both sides: genocide, with gatekeepers using it as a breach of their antisemitism policies. Critics of Israel say the word describes the war, and that those policies treat criticism of Israel as hatred of Jews, while supporters say the term fuels antisemitism. Only one side’s critics have been able to cancel contracts over it. Pro-Israel stars have faced petitions, walkouts, and unfollows, and kept working.

… But the list of people saying the word keeps growing. Adam Brody, who is Jewish and plays a rabbi on Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, told GQ last month: “Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide,” ahead of the show’s third season. Steve Leder, the rabbi who consulted on the first season, called him an “ignorant Jew”.

AND- More big names have kept their contracts intact despite their pro-Gaza stance. Ruffalo still appeared as Bruce Banner in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Nicola Coughlan returned as Penelope in Bridgerton’s fourth season. Florence Pugh leads Netflix’s latest series East of Eden, even though she lost hundreds of thousands of followers over her stance. Javier Bardem will be honored with an award at the Rome Film Fest, returns in Dune: Part Three in December, and has landed a new HBO series.

So, should artists be political at all? Caught between the tough choice of speaking out or staying complicit, today’s artists face that choice with a contract on the line and an industry that continues to fight against freedom of political expression only where it serves it.