Massive Attack Respond to Singapore Ban Over Displaying Palestinian Flag

Massive Attack have posted an Instagram statement saying they were “surprised and disappointed” by their treatment at the hands of Singaporean authorities last week. Police detained the band after group members Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall waved the Palestinian flag during a July 29th concert, resulting in a ban from the country.

The trip-hop legends revealed that the entire group was “isolated and separately questioned” by police, who further subjected some members to hotel room searches and temporarily confiscated passports.

In their statement, Massive Attack recalled how “large sections” of the crowd “organically led chants of ‘Free Palestine’ presumably aware but undeterred that this spontaneous expression alone could violate their government’s censorship laws.”

Massive Attack added that they “did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognized by 157 countries (Palestine) would violate any law.” In Singapore, the Foreign National Emblems (Control of Display) Act prohibits the public display of flags without a permit or exemption, carrying a penalty of a fine of up to S$500 ($390), up to six months in jail, or both penalties.

Del Naja and Marshall have been banned from entering Singapore, and Massive Attack will be denied any future application for performances in the country.

In response to the “surreal experience,” Massive Attack said they are proud of their “impromptu expression” with fans who “clearly felt a moral imperative to show solidarity with the people of Palestine in their ongoing reality of illegal occupation, apartheid & genocide, & we salute their courage in doing so.”

They also highlighted the “importance of defending universal human rights & freedom of expression wherever those rights are threatened,” also alluding to their home country of the UK, where peaceful protestors, including Del Naja, have been “arrested under terrorism laws for holding up handwritten signs protesting genocide.”

“We’re grateful to the people of Singapore who made us feel so welcome, and hope that the Government of Singapore will choose to ratify the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights & allow their citizens expressions of conscience without fear of state prosecution,” Massive Attack concluded. “As we were saying… Free Palestine.”

It’s worth noting that in 2023, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs issued an advisory stating that authorities would “take firm action against” any “public display and wearing of articles in relation to the conflict” between Israel and Hamas, “including denying their entry into Singapore.”

Massive Attack appears to have been unaware of both the Foreign National Emblems (Control of Display) Act and the 2023 advisory. The group has been vocal against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Last summer, they launched an alliance supporting musicians who have been threatened with “attempted censorship” over their pro-Palestine views, and Del Naja was arrested in London while participating in a pro-Palestine protest this past April.