Dancer Who Snuck Palestinian Flag Into Super Bowl Halftime Released Without Charges

A rogue dancer in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance won’t be charged after sneaking a Palestinian flag with the words “GAZA” and “SUDAN” on it onto the field. 

He was detained by Caesars Superdome security Sunday, but New Orleans police told Front Office Sports on Monday that he was never arrested or charged. The NOPD told the Associated Press on Sunday night that it was “working to determine applicable charges in this incident.”

During Lamar’s performance in the middle of the Eagles’ blowout win over the Chiefs, Zül-Qarnain Nantambu, a 41-year-old New Orleans–based artist, unveiled the flag and held it in the air while standing on the roof of a Buick GNX that was the centerpiece of Lamar’s performance and the title to his latest album. Nantambu, dressed in the same black sweatsuit as the other dancers, then jumped off the stage and ran across the field before being tackled by security. 

The incident with the flag did not make it onto Fox’s live broadcast of the show.

Nantambu was detained by security and later “ejected from the stadium after the incident,” a New Orleans police spokesperson told FOS. 

“The NOPD continues to work with NFL and the halftime production team to ascertain any affiliation the individual may have had with the halftime show,” a spokesperson for the police department said to FOS. 

The NFL said in a statement Sunday that Nantambu had hidden the flag and that “no one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent.” Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s entertainment company that produced Lamar’s performance, echoed the NFL’s statement that it wasn’t a part of the performance and “was never in any rehearsal.” Nantambu is banned for life from all NFL stadiums and events. 

President Donald Trump was in attendance for the Super Bowl, a first for a sitting president, but it’s not known if he saw or was made aware of the protest. Trump has repeatedly called Gaza a “demolition site” after Israel’s 16-month war on the enclave, and he has recently said he wants the United States to take over the 25-mile-long strip.

Nantambu, a Muslim, told The Intercept that he planned the protest before learning that Trump would attend the game. 

“I don’t get caught up in politics or anything,” he told The Intercept. “What’s going on in these places are inhumane. The civil war in Sudan, the oppression and the war and the tyranny that’s going on in Gaza, is inhumane. And these people are connected with us all as humans, and especially with me in faith.”

It’s not clear where or how long Nantambu was detained after the incident. Spokespeople for the New Orleans police referred FOS to Superdome security, which said to ask the NFL; the NFL in turn referred questions back to law enforcement.