SINGAPORE: Singapore made the Israeli embassy in the city-state take down an “insensitive” social media post about the Palestinians over the weekend after warning it could inflame tensions, the interior minister said Monday.
The Israel-Hamas war and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza since the militants’ unprecedented attacks on October 7 have divided opinion across the world.
The post reportedly said Israel was mentioned 43 times in the Koran but Palestine -- the name Palestinians give to what they hope will become their independent, sovereign state -- was not, according to local media.
Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam said he asked Singapore’s foreign ministry to tell the Israeli embassy to remove the post made on Sunday after learning about it, which the mission immediately did.
“That post on the Israeli embassy social media page is completely unacceptable. I was very upset when I was told about it,“ Shanmugam told reporters, according to a transcript.
“It is insensitive and inappropriate. It carries the risk of undermining our safety, security and harmony in Singapore.”
Shanmugam said the post had been taken down.
“Posts like these can... inflame tensions, and can put the Jewish community here at risk. The anger from the post can potentially spill over into the physical realm,“ he added.
The Israeli embassy was not immediately available for comment.
Singapore has condemned the Hamas attacks on Israel but has also said that Israel’s military response “has now gone too far”.
The post was apparently posted in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began after militant attacks that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel has vowed to destroy the militants, who also seized about 250 hostages, of whom Israel believes around 130 remain in Gaza, including 33 presumed dead.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Sunday put the total death toll in the territory at 32,226, most of them women and children. -AFP
