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SINGAPORE \u2013 Claims by a news outlet that an Israeli security delegation visited Singapore and discussed the death penalty with Singaporean officials are false, said Senior Minister K. Shanmugam.<\/p>\n
And while a direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has not been issued, it does not mean it cannot be issued later should circumstances change, he added.<\/p>\n
Shanmugam, who is also Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, was responding to a parliamentary question from Fadli Fawzi (Aljunied GRC) on Oct 7.<\/p>\n
The article in question was published on Sept 7 by Israeli daily Haaretz.<\/p>\n
It falsely claimed a secret Israeli delegation flew to Singapore in May and discussed the death penalty with Singapore officials even though it was not originally on the agenda.<\/p>\n
Fadli had asked why a POFMA order was not issued to the news outlet, whether Singapore had discussed with the Israeli officials on addressing illegal settlements<\/span><\/a> and settler violence in the West Bank, and whether Singapore had requested that the meeting be secret.<\/p>\n In a written response, Shanmugam said Singapore regularly holds discussions with international counterparts on security and law enforcement matters, allowing for the exchange of information and intelligence between agencies.<\/p>\n This has enabled Singapore to identify potential threats, intervene early, and keep Singapore safe.<\/p>\n He added it is in Singapore\u2019s national interest to maintain these channels of cooperation, including with countries in the Middle East.<\/p>\n The meeting with the Israeli delegation was one such engagement, but the discussions focused on operational and security-related issues, and did not extend to broader foreign policy matters, said Shanmugam.<\/p>\n He said Singapore\u2019s positions on such matters are addressed through the appropriate foreign policy channels, including by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n As for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), he said that since January 2025, there have been 11 officials-level bilateral exchanges with foreign counterparts, including several with partners from the Middle East.<\/p>\n Shanmugam said the contents of the exchanges are confidential and generally not publicised because of the security concerns.<\/p>\n However, there was a press release issued for one, at the request of the counterpart concerned.<\/p>\n Shanmugam said MHA responded to the Haaretz article because the article\u2019s claims concerning the meeting with Israeli security officials were categorically false.<\/p>\n He said that at the time of the article\u2019s publication, it assessed that it was not in the public interest for a POFMA direction<\/span><\/a> to be issued.<\/p>\n But it remains a possibility, should circumstances change.<\/p>\n Shanmugam said: \u201cThat is the approach MHA takes to discussions with its bilateral counterparts, on matters of shared operational and security concern.\u201d<\/p>\n He said if Fadli believes MHA should use such engagements to raise broader concerns about the policies or conduct of the country concerned, then he should say so clearly.<\/p>\n He also asked Fadli to clarify whether he believes this principle should apply only to Israel, or consistently to all countries that engage with MHA.<\/p>\n Shanmugam said: \u201cFor example, when MHA holds operational discussions with other Middle Eastern or Asian countries, should we also raise the concerns Singapore may have with their conduct or policies?<\/p>\n \u201cIf that is the Member\u2019s position, the Government would be interested to understand how he proposes that such an approach would serve Singapore\u2019s overall interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Claims by a news outlet that an Israeli security delegation visited Singapore and discussed the death penalty with Singaporean officials are false, said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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