The cast member who displayed the Palestinian flag with the word “GAZA” in protest during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show will not face charges, New Orleans police said Monday.
The banner combined the black stripes of the flags honored by the Sudanese and Palestinian peoples and also had the word SUDAN on it.
The cast member, one of dozens of dancers clad in identical black sweats, held it high while standing on the roof of the car that was a centerpiece of the hip-hop artist’s performance, and then jumped off the stage and ran across the field before being tackled by several men in suits.
The cast member had hidden the flag and “no one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent,” the NFL said Sunday, adding that the person has earned a lifetime ban from league stadiums and events.
Roc Nation, the entertainment company which produced the halftime show, said in a statement provided by the NFL that the flag display was not planned.
US President Donald Trump was in the stadium for the game, but it wasn’t clear if he saw the protest.
Trump’s comments asserting that his government is committed to buying and owning Gaza have been widely rejected by the Palestinian people, upending discussions about the enclave’s future.
Have these wars come up in popular culture before?
Online, activists have sought to draw attention to both Gaza and Sudan, though the conflicts have different roots and participants.
The idea of the two conflicts being linked by their devastation has been made by celebrities.
In August, American rapper Macklemore said he canceled a concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates’ role “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary RSF.
While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the RSF, UN experts reported “credible” evidence last year showed that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.
Macklemore at the time said he reconsidered the show in part over his recent, public support of Palestinians over the Gaza war.
He has been performing a song called “Hind’s Hall,” in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab who was killed in Gaza in a shooting that Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces opening fire on a civilian car.
