Israeli embassy in Singapore forced to delete ‘insensitive’ Facebook post

An “insensitive” post by the Israeli Embassy in China that attempted to quote the Quran to make a political point has been removed following intervention by the Singaporean government.

The post on the Facebook page was made on Sunday.

Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam called it a “shocking attempt to rewrite history” and said the post was “insensitive”, “inappropriate” and “completely unacceptable” as it undermined Singapore’s security, law and order and harmony. risks of.

“I was very upset when I learned about this,” he told reporters at the door on Monday.

Today quoted Minister Shanmugam as saying: “The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spoke to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) yesterday (Sunday) and said the embassy must remove the post immediately and they have done so. “As mentioned.

Earlier on Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan also weighed in on the article, saying: “It is highly inappropriate to quote sacred texts to express a political point. We have informed the ambassador The embassy made this clear and the embassy has taken down the post.” Dr. Balakrishnan made the remarks while returning to Israel and the Palestinian territories from a trip to the Middle East.

A now-deleted post on the Facebook page of the Israeli Embassy in Singapore read: “Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Quran. Palestine, on the other hand, is not mentioned even once.” The post went on to say that the map, Archaeological evidence, such as documents and coins, shows that Jews are the indigenous people of Israel.

“This article is an egregious attempt to rewrite history,” Shanmugam said. “The author of this article should have looked at United Nations resolutions to see if Israel’s behavior over the past few decades is consistent with this before trying to rewrite history.” international law.” Calling the post “wrong on so many levels,” Shanmugam said it could inflame tensions because the outrage over the post could spill over into the real world, endangering the Jewish community in the multinational nation of Singapore. Community.

Separately, Social and Family Development Minister and Muslim Affairs Minister Masagos Zulkifli posted on Facebook that he was also “very disturbed” when he saw the post.

“No one should make interpretations that offend the beliefs of others, especially the selective use of their sacred texts to express political views,” Masagos said.