PROTESTER STORMS SUPER BOWL HALFTIME FOR PALESTINE & SUDAN

During Grammy Award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime show performance on 9 February in New Orleans, one of the approximately 400 ‘field cast’ members pulled out a combined Palestine-Sudan flag, with the words ‘Gaza’ and ‘Sudan’ prominently displayed. The man, who the National Football League’s spokesperson reportedly told CNN had the flag ‘on his person,’ then rushed onto the field before security detained him. Police have not yet charged the person, who the NFL said would be banned for life from NFL stadiums and events. 'No one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent,' the league said in a statement.

The Super Bowl is the most-watched event in the United States, drawing more than 120 million viewers in 2024. The protester called for people to continue advocating for Palestinians oppressed under the Western-backed Israeli occupation in Gaza and those affected by the devastating foreign-backed proxy war in Sudan.

Israel's military onslaught has k*lled 61,000, according to the Gaza government information office, which also noted that thousands are still missing or presumed dead. It further stated that the bodies of 76 per cent of the victims had been recovered and brought to medical centres. Meanwhile, the office estimated at least 14,222 people are trapped under rubble or in areas inaccessible to rescuers. The Lancet medical journal estimated that by July 2024, the death toll may have exceeded 186,000. Reports indicate that by the end of 2024, around 1.8 million Palestinians experienced critical levels of hunger.

In Sudan, recent estimates released by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine indicated that over 61,000 people died in Khartoum State in the first 14 months of the proxy war. However, the US envoy to Sudan estimated as many as 150,000 Sudanese k*lled by May 2024. Sudan is experiencing the world's largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded, with nearly 25 million people—more than half of the country's population—requiring aid, according to the United Nations.

Sources:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/10/1155836#:~:text=More%20than%201.8%20million%20Palestinians,released%20on%20Thursday%20has%20revealed. 

https://theatlantavoice.com/kendrick-lamar-super-bowl-performance-2

https://www.dw.com/en/sudan-facing-biggest-humanitarian-crisis-recorded-report/a-71018990

https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2024/invisible-and-severe-death-toll-sudan-conflict-revealed 

https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/sudan-emergency 

https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-protester-whats-happening-gaza-sudan-dd79957e52b06212044cae6d4ce9e87e

https://x.com/geoffreyyork/status/1786073142475075756

https://truthout.org/articles/gaza-officials-update-death-toll-to-over-61000-adding-thousands-presumed-dead

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext