SINGAPORE: Singapore will impose financial sanctions on four Israelis and bar them from entering the city-state, its foreign affairs ministry announced on Friday, accusing them of “egregious acts of extreme violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The ministry said actions committed in the West Bank by Meir Mordechai Ettinger, Elisha Yered, Ben-Zion Gopstein and Baruch Marzel were unlawful and had jeopardized the prospects for a two-state solution in Palestine.
“As a firm supporter of international law and the two-state solution, Singapore opposes any unilateral attempts to change facts on the ground through acts which are illegal under international law,” it said.
All four individuals have been previously sanctioned by the European Union.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan announced in parliament in September that leaders of Israeli settler groups would be sanctioned.
He also chided Israeli politicians who had spoken about annexing parts of the West Bank or Gaza, the two Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, and said the so-called E1 settlement project would fragment the West Bank.
Apart from imposing sanctions, Balakrishnan said Singapore would also recognize a Palestine state under the right conditions.
Most of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and saying the settlements provide security.
While Singapore and Israel have shared close diplomatic and military ties since the former gained independence in 1965, the city-state in 2024 voted in favor of numerous resolutions expressing support for the UN recognition of a Palestinian state.
Singapore imposes sanctions, entry bans on four Israeli West Bank settlers
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Singapore imposes sanctions, entry bans on four Israeli West Bank settlers
- Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan announced in parliament in September that leaders of Israeli settler groups would be sanctioned
UK interior minister insists asylum reforms ‘fair’ amid blowback
- Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders
- Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow”
LONDON: Britain’s interior minister doubled down Thursday on her tough stance on immigration despite criticism from charities and unease within the ruling Labour party that it is shedding left-wing voters.
Shabana Mahmood announced that asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will be thrown out of government-funded accommodation and lose their support payments.
The policy forms part of a major overhaul of migration rules announced late last year and modelled on Denmark’s strict asylum system that aims to slash irregular migration to the UK.
Mahmood argued in a speech that she was “restoring order and control” to Britain’s borders and that her overhaul of the asylum was “firm but fair,” adding she would open new and safe legal routes.
But Amnesty International called the latest measure a “punitive blow” that “risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.”
Mahmood’s reforms are widely seen as an attempt to stem support for the hard-right Reform UK party, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage.
It has topped opinion polls for a year, in part because of the government’s failure to stop thousands of migrants from arriving in England from northern France on small boats.
But her stance has also been credited with contributing to Labour losing support to the progressive Green party, which won a local election in a traditional Labour heartland last week.
Mahmood said there was a middle path between Farage’s “nightmare pulling up the drawbridge and shutting out the world” and Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s “fairy tale of open borders.”
Her reform that makes refugee status temporary, including for accompanied children, came into force this week.
The status will be reviewed every 30 months, with refugees forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe.
They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency.
She also announced earlier this week that the government would stop issuing education visas to nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan.
It said there had been a surge in asylum applications by students from those countries and almost 135,000 asylum seekers in total had entered the UK using legal routes since 2021.
