Should artists stay out of politics?

Macklemore performs on stage at the Goldencoast Rap Festival in Corcelles-les-Monts on 3o August 2026. Photograph: Arnaud Finistre/AFP/Getty Images By Rod Benson The controversy surrounding Macklemoreโ€™s recent removal from the remaining U.S. dates of Ed Sheeranโ€™s 2026 Loop tour raises a question extending far beyond one rapper, one pop star or one geopolitical conflict. Should musicians use concert …

Speech for Palm Sunday Rally 2025

Friends, We gather today on the lands of the Gadigal people and pay our respects to the people, cultures and elders past and present. We gather today as people of faith, and people of conscience. On Palm Sunday, Christians everywhere remember the time when Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalemโ€”not on a warhorse, but on a …

Dr Bernard Sabella’s 2006 Sydney address

No. 26 of 47. First published 16 Dec 2007. Dr Bernard Sabella is an interesting and energetic person. He is a Roman Catholic, a member of Fatah, an elected representative of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and professor of Sociology at Bethlehem University. It was my pleasure to sit next to him at the Jerusalem Heads of …

Palestinian humanitarian briefing (UNOCHA)

No. 17 of 47. First published 5 Dec 2007. From the Franciscans we went by bus to that other esteemed humanitarian order, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), situated in West Jerusalem. We were expecting an intensive briefing on the situation on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza, …

Statement by Australian Church leaders on Israel

Archbishop Phillip Aspinall addresses the Heads of Jerusalem Churches at a dinner in Jerusalem, 6 Dec 2007. Photo credit: Rod Benson In December 2007, a delegation of nine Australian Church leaders visited Jerusalem and the Holy Land. I was one of the nine. Seventeen years on, so little has changed. So many have died, and …