SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The Republic will impose financial sanctions and bar the entry of four Israeli individuals immediately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Nov 21.
The four individuals are Meir Mordechai Ettinger, Elisha Yered, Ben-Zion Gopstein and Baruch Marzel. MFA said they have been involved in “egregious acts of extremist violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“Such actions are unlawful and undermine and jeopardise prospects for a two-state solution,” said the ministry.
Stressing that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, MFA said their “presence and expansion will make it much harder” to arrive at a viable two-state solution.
As Singapore is a firm supporter of international law and the two-state solution, it opposes unilateral attempts to “change facts on the ground” through illegal acts.
“We call on the Israeli government to restrain acts of settler violence and to hold the perpetrators accountable,” it said.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan had said in September that Singapore will impose targeted sanctions on the leaders of radical right-wing settler groups that have been responsible for acts of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The move followed the Israeli government’s decision to proceed with the E1 settlement in the West Bank, which will fragment the region, as well as threaten the contiguity of Arab towns in the occupied Palestinian territories, Dr Balakrishnan said in his ministerial statement.
Four men have far-right ties
According to information sourced from past news reports, all four men mentioned by MFA have far-right ties.
Ettinger, 34, is the grandson of Meir Kahane, a US-born Israeli rabbi who called for the mass expulsion of Arabs and is regarded as an extremist figure.
In a Times of Israel report dated Aug 6, 2015, he was arrested by Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service for his suspected involvement in an arson attack on a Palestinian home in the West Bank that killed two people and their 18-month-old son.
He is also considered to be the leader of the Hilltop Youth.
The extremist group was sanctioned by the European Union and the US Treasury Department in 2024, with the US describing it as having “repeatedly attacked Palestinians and destroyed Palestinian homes and property in the West Bank”, in an October 2024 statement.
Yered, 24, is another member of the Hilltop Youth, and in September 2023 was held by Israeli law enforcement over the August 2023 shooting of a 19-year-old Palestinian following a clash between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, reported The Times of Israel.
The Israeli military barred him from entering the territory for six months from September that year, Israeli news outlet Haaretz said.
Both Ettinger and Yered have been sanctioned by Australia, Canada and the EU, among others.
Gopstein, 56, is the founder of Lehava, a far-right Israeli group, and has ties to Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said a Reuters report in July 2024.
The US in 2024 placed sanctions against the group, which it described as being involved in “acts of violent extremism”.
In January 2024, he was convicted of incitement to racism, having made numerous inflammatory public statements about Arabs between 2012 and 2017, including calling them a “cancer”, The Times of Israel reported.
He was also a student of rabbi Kahane, along with Marzel, 66, who also belongs to Lehava.
In an archived website belonging to the Jewish National Front – a defunct religious far-right political party in Israel founded in 2004 and dissolved in 2012 – Marzel was described as the “right-hand man” of the rabbi, who had formed the extremist Kach political party.
Gopstein has been sanctioned by the US, Canada and the EU, while Marzel was sanctioned by the EU. - The Straits Times/ANN
