Kyrie Irving offers to pay NFL player's fine as Palestine solidarity defies corporate pressure

Kyrie Irving offers to pay NFL player's fine as Palestine solidarity defies corporate pressure Submitted by MEE staff on Thu, 09/17/2026 - 18:53 NBA star’s backing of Azeez al-Shaair comes as stars appear increasingly willing to accept financial and professional losses for speaking out on Palestine NFL has fined Houston Texans linebacker Azeez al-Shaair $11,492 for wearing eye black inscribed with 'Hind Rajab', a tribute to the Palestinian child, aged five, killed in Gaza in 2024 (Screengrab/X) Off NBA star Kyrie Irving has offered to pay a fine imposed on Houston Texans linebacker Azeez al-Shaair after the NFL player wore the name of Hind Rajab, the five-year-old Palestinian child killed in Gaza by Israel, across his nose during a game.

Shaair was fined $11,492 for displaying what the NFL classed as an unauthorised personal message during the Texans’ game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

When news of the fine began circulating online on Wednesday, Irving’s response was brief. “I’ll take care of his fine,” the Dallas Mavericks star wrote on X.

The intervention was quickly celebrated online, not only as a show of solidarity with Shaair but as another instance of a prominent athlete refusing to quietly retreat from support for Palestinians when faced with pressure from some of the most powerful institutions in US sports and entertainment.

Bela atitude!

Kyrie Irving, craque da NBA, vai pagar a multa do jogador do Houston Texans (NFL), Azeez Al-Shaair, que escreveu o nome da menina palestina Hind Rajab, assassinada por Israel em Gaza, no seu rosto durante um jogo.

🏈 https://t. co/WRIwTGW8vB — André Fran (@andrefran) September 17, 2026 Shaair has repeatedly used the visibility afforded to him by the NFL to draw attention to Palestinians.

Earlier this year, he was fined after wearing tape carrying the words “Stop the Genocide”, while he has also worn customised cleats supporting the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

This time, his message consisted simply of a name: Hind Rajab. Rajab, aged five at the time of her death, was trapped inside her family’s car in Gaza City in January 2024 after it came under Israeli fire.

Her desperate calls to the Palestinian Red Crescent, made while she was surrounded by the bodies of relatives, became one of the most widely recognised accounts of Palestinian children killed during Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Irving, meanwhile, has also been vocal about Palestine. At the NBA All-Star Game in February, he arrived wearing a shirt marked “PRESS”, dedicated to Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza.

He has also appeared publicly in a keffiyeh and with other symbols associated with Palestine.

His offer to pay Shaair’s fine has carried a message beyond covering an $11,000 bill: punishment imposed on one athlete for speaking about Palestine could become an opportunity for another athlete to amplify the Palestinian cause.

From Macklemore to the NFL That dynamic has become particularly visible this week.

Days before Irving’s intervention, rapper Macklemore was dropped from the remaining US dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour, following controversy over pro-Palestine remarks made during his opening performances.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, whose company owns Gillette Stadium, publicly acknowledged objecting to Macklemore performing at the venue, while Sheeran said upcoming venues had threatened to pull his shows if the rapper remained on the bill.

Kraft said his objections concerned what he characterised as antisemitic rhetoric rather than advocacy for Palestinians. But the attempt to remove one performer produced an unexpectedly large show of solidarity.

Finneas, Irish singer Aaron Rowe, Irish band Beoga and Danish group Lukas Graham subsequently withdrew from Sheeran’s US dates, with several explicitly citing Macklemore’s removal and their support for Palestinians.

Macklemore, for his part, doubled down. On Thursday, he said he would donate $1m in net earnings he has already made from the tour to organisations supporting Palestinians. pic.

In a world of Pink’s and Ed Sheeran’s, be a Macklemore. Be a Kyrie Irving. twitter.

com/s1ZR2fuUfe — B L A K E L E Y™℠©® LLC (@_iamblakeley) September 16, 2026 Taken together, the disputes in the NFL and Sheeran’s tour point to a shifting calculation among some high-profile figures.

For years, celebrities speaking publicly about Palestine have faced the possibility of losing sponsorships, appearances or other professional opportunities. Those pressures have not disappeared.

Shaair has now been fined more than once, while Macklemore lost a run of stadium shows. But influential people are increasingly responding, not staying silent.

Other artists walked away from Ed Sheeran. Irving volunteered to shoulder Shaair’s financial penalty.

And rather than disappearing from public view, both controversies generated days of additional attention for the Palestinian cause and individuals at their centre.

Writer and journalist Jonathan Cook summarised these sentiments with the following: “Being pimped by the billionaires for genocide is a bad look.

” After three years of genocide, we are seeing in the bust-up between Macklemore and Ed Sheeran the first signs of a welcome fissure between political and economic power, on one side, and social and cultural power on the other.

Earlier acts of protests against genocide by… — Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) September 17, 2026 For Shaair, the episode began with two words written beneath his eyes.

By the time the NFL had fined him, one of basketball’s biggest names had repeated "Hind Rajab" to millions more.

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