being banned from the country<\/a>.<\/p>\nSingapore, known for its tough laws on public speech and assembly, bans the open display of all foreign flags, national emblems or banners without a permit.<\/p>\n
Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall from Massive Attack stand with a Palestinian flag at the end of their performance in Singapore on 29 July. Photograph: Simran Panaech\/Reuters<\/p>\n
On Sunday the band issued a statement on Instagram. \u201cFollowing our performance at the Star Theatre, Singapore, on 29th July, we were surprised and disappointed that our entire band was detained by the police, isolated and separately questioned \u2013 with some members subjected to hotel room searches and temporary passport confiscation,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we set foot on the stage and again at the end of the show, large sections of the auditorium organically led chants of \u2018Free Palestine\u2019, presumably aware but undeterred that this spontaneous expression alone could violate their government\u2019s censorship laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our part, we did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognised by 157 countries would violate any law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement continued: \u201cOn 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 \u2018international community\u2019 is moving citizens to personal risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The band said the \u201csurreal experience\u201d was a \u201creminder of the importance of defending universal human rights and freedom of expression, wherever those rights are threatened\u201d.<\/p>\n
They added: \u201cAt home in the UK peaceful protestors [are being] arrested under terrorism laws for holding up handwritten signs protesting genocide, despite appeals from all sides of the political spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concluding the statement, Massive Attack said: \u201cWe are 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 and allow their citizens expressions of conscience without fear of state prosecution. As we were saying \u2026 Free Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n
A statement released on Saturday by the Singapore police force and the Infocomm Media Development Authority said police had investigated both Del Naja and Marshall for \u201ctheir actions of support for a political cause and unfurling of a foreign flag\u201d.<\/p>\n
The authorities said that after an investigation, which included consultation with the attorney general\u2019s chambers, police had issued \u201cstern warnings\u201d to both men for allegedly breaching the Foreign National Emblems (Control of Display) Act and the Public Order Act.<\/p>\n
The statement said both men would \u201calso be banned from re-entering Singapore\u201d while any future applications for them to perform there would not be approved.<\/p>\n
Police \u201ctake 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
Del Naja was among 500 people arrested<\/a> in April during a demonstration in London against the ban on Palestine Action, a group that has been proscribed in the UK.<\/p>\nThe Singapore police force has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Massive Attack have called being banned from Singapore a \u201csurreal experience\u201d after displaying a Palestinian flag during their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-843686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}