Israel embassy condemns posts comparing Singapore’s vaccination drive to Holocaust
SINGAPORE — The embassy of Israel in Singapore on Thursday (12 August) “strongly" condemned recent social media posts comparing the city-state’s vaccination campaign and other related issues to the Holocaust.
In a post on its Facebook page, the embassy said, “The Holocaust was a genocide perpetrated by the Nazi regime to slaughter 6 million innocent Jews and comparing the obvious health benefits of vaccinations that have benefited billions around the world is not only in bad taste, but is also Holocaust Distortion by downplaying the horrors of the Holocaust.”
While the embassy did not specify details of the posts that it objected to, its message comes a day after Progress Singapore Party (PSP) member Brad Bowyer resigned from the opposition party after he drew flak for comparing Singapore’s COVID-19 safe management measures to the Holocaust.
PSP received Bowyer's resignation letter on Wednesday and accepted it, Kumaran Pillai, Head of Communications for the party, told Yahoo News Singapore.
On Tuesday, Bowyer posted a photo of a railway track leading to the main entrance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on his Facebook page. He juxtaposed the photo with text stating, "It didn't start with gas chambers. It started with one party controlling the media...One party censoring speech and silencing opposition."
In a separate post to announce his resignation on Wednesday, Bowyer said he chose the picture "from the Holocaust" as his family and other Singaporeans who have "concerns about vaccination were formally made second class citizens in their own country”.
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