New Orleans police on Monday said they won’t be bringing any charges against the Super Bowl halftime dancer who displayed a Palestinian-Sudanese flag during Kendrick Lamar’s set, The Associated Press reported.
Videos of the incident circulated on social media showed the individual, who was part of a group of performers in all-black outfits, standing on a car and displaying the flag. The flag had the words “GAZA” and “SUDAN” written on it.
The performer was later subdued by security after getting down from the car and sprinting around the stage. In a statement on Sunday, the NFL said the performer in question was “part of the 400-member field cast,” NBC News reported.
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“We commend security for quickly detaining the individual who displayed the flag,” the NFL added. “He was a part of the 400-member field cast. The individual hid the item on his possession and unveiled it late in the show. No one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent.”
The NFL also said the performer will be given a lifetime ban “from all NFL stadiums and events.”
The Super Bowl Halftime show is produced by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation outfit. A company representative stated that the “act by the individual was neither planned nor part of the production and was never in any rehearsal.”
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Sunday’s Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans was attended by several celebrities and high-profile figures including U.S. President Donald Trump. It could, however, not be established if the protester’s actions caught Trump’s eye.
Sunday’s incident also came after Trump proposed the resettlement of displaced Palestinians to pave way for a project that would transform Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” The Associated Press reported.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’ll make sure that it’s done world-class. It’ll be wonderful for the people — Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we’re talking about.”
But U.S. allies including Egypt and Jordan are not in support of Trump’s proposal, explaining that resettling displaced Palestinians from the war-torn Gaza will exacerbate tensions and negatively impact security in the Middle East.
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