The protester who waved a flag expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Sudanese individuals throughout Kendrick Lamar’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present on Sunday has been launched with out fees after police detained him however could not determine any fees to press towards him.
The protester, 41-year-old Zül-Qarnaįn Nantambu, was employed as a dancer in Lamar’s efficiency. Through the halftime present, he stood on prime of a automotive used as a prop and unfurled a mix of the Sudan and Palestinian flags as Lamar carried out one in every of his prime songs, “Not Like Us.” The flag mentioned “Sudan” and “Gaza” on it, and included pictures of a coronary heart and a raised fist.
Footage of Nantambu’s protest, which was lower from the nationwide broadcast, exhibits that he was shortly chased and tackled by occasion safety and faraway from the sphere. He was then detained by New Orleans police, which mentioned in a press release that “regulation enforcement is working to find out relevant fees on this incident.” The NFL banned him from all future NFL occasions.
Police said that they didn’t arrest the protester, and launched him after the incident with out urgent any fees. The manufacturing firm behind the present mentioned that they weren’t conscious that Nantambu was going to wage his protest.
Nantambu has defined in interviews that he noticed a possibility to talk out on atrocities being inflicted on individuals in Sudan and Gaza when he acquired discover that he had been employed to be a part of the efficiency. His religion as a Muslim impressed him to behave, he mentioned.
“As a training Muslim, our Prophet Mohammad teaches us: should you see a wrongdoing, otherwise you’re conscious of a wrongdoing, it’s essential to cease it,” Nantambu informed Al Jazeera in an interview. “So I had a possibility on a grand scale to carry consciousness of communicate out towards a unsuitable [against] our Muslim brothers and sisters. As a result of we’re spiritually linked in Islam, and we’re human and we’re linked with empathy for humanity.”
Nantambu additionally informed NBC that he was impressed by Lamar’s efficiency, which included symbolic use of the U.S. flag, to talk out. “He had the individuals formulate the American flag; he had two massive black flags together with his file label,” Nantambu mentioned. “And he talked about ‘the revolution being televised,’ and he talked about consciousness.”
In accordance to Fox, which broadcast the Tremendous Bowl, and media research firm Nielsen, Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl broke a file for probably the most widely-watched program aired within the U.S. of all time. That is the second yr in a row that the Tremendous Bowl has damaged viewership information; numerous Tremendous Bowl packages dominate prime lists of the most-watched packages within the U.S. of all time.
Throughout final yr’s Tremendous Bowl, Israel launched a horrific attack on Rafah, in southern Gaza, with many commentators noting that it seemed to be timed particularly whereas Individuals have been distracted by the occasion. The Gaza Well being Ministry mentioned that Israel massacred no less than 67 Palestinians through the recreation. Rafah was then sheltering 1.5 million forcibly displaced Palestinians, designated as a “secure zone” by Israeli forces.
In Sudan, over 12.5 million individuals have been forcibly displaced by a civil warfare that launched in April 2023. A lethal famine has gripped a swath of North Darfur, and might be unfold even additional, with famine researchers unable to determine the breadth of the disaster.
The battle has escalated previously week, the UN reported, with 275 individuals killed between January 31 and February 5. Researchers have estimated that over 61,000 individuals have been killed because of the combating in Sudan.
The Trump administration is ready to intensify the atrocities in Sudan and Palestine. Trump is threatening complete ethnic cleaning of Gaza and fueling Israel’s assault of the occupied West Financial institution with weapons transfers and diplomatic help. In the meantime, the administration’s freeze on overseas support has cut lifesaving humanitarian support in Sudan, which experts say may endanger the lives of tens of tens of millions of individuals, together with tens of millions of youngsters.
The atrocities towards individuals in Sudan and Palestine are being accomplished “on a large scale, and no one is de facto giving it the sunshine that it ought to get,” Nantambu informed Al Jazeera. “I wished to indicate the solidarity to these by this and their households and family members that they’re being remembered right here in America — not simply by me, however by others.”
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