Music group says it’s ‘proud’ to have made ‘impromptu expression’ of assist for Palestine by unfurling flag throughout live performance.
Revealed On 3 Aug 2026
British trip-hop band Massive Attack has mentioned its members had been detained by police in Singapore after a live performance final week, throughout which a Palestinian flag was unfurled on stage.
In a press release printed on Instagram on Monday, the group mentioned massive sections of the gang chanted “Free Palestine” earlier than and on the finish of its efficiency on the Star Theatre on July 29.
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“We didn’t think about that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognised by 157 nations would violate any regulation,” Huge Assault’s assertion mentioned, including that the band was “proud” to have made an “impromptu expression” with their followers “who clearly felt an ethical crucial to point out solidarity with the folks of Palestine”.
After the efficiency, the assertion continued, “we had been stunned and dissatisfied that our complete band was detained by the police, remoted and individually questioned – with some members subjected to lodge room searches & momentary passport confiscation”.
Police mentioned final week the band’s actions “might doubtlessly hurt the racial and non secular concord in Singapore”, the place international flags, nationwide emblems and banners can’t be displayed in public and not using a allow.
Authorities mentioned two band members had been issued with stern warnings and barred from re-entering Singapore.
Huge Assault, comprising Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall, was performing with a dwell backing band and visitor vocalists, together with Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.
Huge Assault mentioned its encounter with police in Singapore was a “surreal expertise” and a “reminder of the significance of defending common human rights and freedom of expression”.
In April, frontman Del Naja was amongst greater than 500 folks arrested by British police in London throughout a protest in opposition to the banning of Palestine Motion, which is classed as a “terrorist” organisation by the UK. Del Naja was arrested on suspicion of displaying assist for a proscribed organisation.
Additionally in April, a Singaporean courtroom fined three girls for organising a stroll in assist of Palestine two years earlier, throughout which letters had been delivered to then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong urging him to chop ties with Israel.
Singapore, which has a principally ethnic Chinese language inhabitants but in addition a sizeable ethnic Malay-Muslim minority, adopted a stance of noninterference following the beginning of Israel’s genocidal struggle on Palestinians in Gaza in 2023, reflecting its long-held international coverage centred on being “good friend to all and enemy to none”.
