The U.K. electronic band Massive Attack has been banned from Singapore because of its pro-Palestinian activism onstage, the group said.
The group unfurled a Palestinian flag during a performance at the Star Theatre in Singapore on July 29. The band said police detained them after the show, and that an investigation led to the band being forbidden from performing in the country.
The nation of Singapore has strict laws against displaying foreign flags or national symbols without a permit.
Massive Attack, which consists of Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, described the event as a “surreal experience” in a post on Instagram.
“We were surprised and disappointed that our entire band was detained by the police, isolated and separately questioned – with some members subjected to hotel room searches and temporary passport confiscation,” it read.
“Before we set foot on the stage and again at the end of the show, large sections of the auditorium organically led chants of ‘Free Palestine’, presumably aware but undeterred that this spontaneous expression alone could violate their government’s censorship laws.”
“For our part,” the statement continued, “we did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognised by 157 countries would violate any law.”
In a statement issued Saturday, cited by the Guardian, Singapore police and the local Infocomm Media Development Authority said that Del Naja and Marshall had been investigated for “their actions of support for a political cause and unfurling of a foreign flag,” violating Singapore’s Foreign National Emblems (Control of Display) Act and the Public Order Act.
The police said they “take a serious view of acts which could potentially harm the racial and religious harmony in Singapore and urge the public, including foreigners, to refrain from importing foreign politics as this can undermine our social cohesion and the rule of law.”
The statement said Del Naja and Marshall would “be banned from re-entering Singapore” and are forbidden from performing there again.
The band did not back down from its onstage gesture or its longstanding pro-Palestinian activism, stating that “On reflection, we are proud to have made this impromptu expression with our fans in Singapore who clearly felt a moral imperative to show solidarity with the people of Palestine in their ongoing reality of illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide, and we salute their courage in doing so. Right across the world, the continued inaction of the ‘international community’ is moving citizens to personal risk.”
Del Naja was recently arrested at a recent protest in support of the group Palestine Action in London.
