{"id":722286,"date":"2026-08-01T06:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722286\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:05:10","slug":"singapore-bans-massive-attack-for-showing-palestinian-flag-breaching-ban-on-foreign-emblems-massive-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722286\/","title":{"rendered":"Singapore bans Massive Attack for showing Palestinian flag, breaching ban on foreign emblems | Massive Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

British trip-hop band Massive Attack<\/a> has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said.<\/p>\n

Singapore, 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

Two band members who held the flag on stage during a concert on Wednesday were also banned from re-entering Singapore and issued with warnings, police said in a statement late on Friday, without naming the pair.<\/p>\n

The concert promoter had not responded to an AFP request for comment at time of publication. The band had not issued a public comment.<\/p>\n

A video circulating online showed two Massive Attack members on stage unfurling a Palestinian flag to loud, prolonged cheers from the audience.<\/p>\n

After concluding their investigation and in consultation with state prosecutors, police said they \u201cadministered stern warnings to both men\u201d and barred them from coming back to the city-state.<\/p>\n

The media regulator was also probing possible breaches of licensing conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotwithstanding the event organiser\u2019s prior acknowledgment of the licence conditions, during the performance, two band members held a foreign flag on stage, and one of them also shouted \u2018Free Palestine\u2019,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

The media regulator \u201cwill also not grant any future application for performances by the band in Singapore in view of the entry ban\u201d, police said.<\/p>\n

The band is known for its criticism of Israel\u2019s military actions in Gaza and has used its popularity to support the Palestinian cause.<\/p>\n

In April, frontman Robert Del Naja was among more than 200 people arrested<\/a> at a protest in London\u2019s Trafalgar Square in support of Palestine Action, an activist group banned by British authorities.<\/p>\n

Singapore is a major concert hub for south-east Asia, having hosted multi-night performances by Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars.<\/p>\n

The police urged the public, including foreigners, \u201cto refrain from importing foreign politics as this can undermine our social cohesion and the rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-722286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}