In a city-state where social cohesion is treated as a civic obligation, the British band Massive Attack crossed a carefully maintained boundary when two of its members unfurled a Palestinian flag on a Singapore stage. Authorities moved swiftly, issuing entry bans and a permanent performance prohibition — a response that reveals how Singapore weighs the claims of artistic expression against its foundational commitment to political neutrality in public life. The episode places an old tension in a new setting: the question of where a performer's conscience ends and a host nation's sovereignty beg