#EdSheeran# opens up his tour stop in Philadelphia with a prepared statement: “Now, I want to address the question of where I stand on Israel and Palestine, and whether my doing this concert here tonight implies where I stand…What happened in Israel and at the Supernova Music Festival on October 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic, unjustifiable, and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians’ lives, of children’s lives. The systemic injustice we’re seeing unfold in the West Bank cannot be overlooked. I am already speaking to people across the spectrum to work out how to make a contribution that helps victims of these terrible times, and listening and learning because I do not know enough.”