Singapore court clears three in pro-Palestinian protest case

The ruling surprised the defendants and their supporters, as demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas conflict are not allowed in the city-state.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Singapore court has exonerated three protesters of charges that they organized an illegal pro-Palestinian walk in the capital last year, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The ruling surprised many because no demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas conflict are allowed in the tightly-held democracy due to the authorities’ belief that there was a “real risk that such events could give rise to public disorder, as the war was a sensitive topic,” the report noted.

Police charged that in February 2024, Mossammad Sobikun Nahar, Siti Amirah Mohamed Asrori and Kokila Annamalai had organized a 70-person quiet march from a shopping mall in the capital to the presidential office without receiving prior permission.

They also walked in a prohibited area, the police said.

The women’s defense centered on the argument that because they walked on public streets, they did not realize they were in an area where a procession was not allowed.

The judge noted that while they had organized an unauthorized march, they would “not have any inkling that using that route would be illegal or prohibited,” as there were no signs marking it as such.

He then let them off, saying, “It is clear from the evidence that the three of them were trying their level best not to run afoul of the law.”

The women, who deliberately came to court dressed in the colors of the Palestinian flag and used keffiyehs as scarves to make a statement, had been “fully prepared to be convicted,” Annamalai told the BBC, and they and their supporters in the room were “surprised” at their exoneration.

The state prosecution told the BBC that it would appeal the decision.

Democracy trackers rank Singapore as “partly free” because, while it is a parliamentary democracy with a free vote, one party has dominated decisively for decades. The country is among the bottom 25% in freedom of the press and freedom of association and assembly.

If the judge had ruled against them, the trio could each have been fined $10,000 and/or be imprisoned for up to half a year.

Israel and Singapore have had strong ties and an extensive security partnership for over half a century, although in deference to its strong, Muslim-majority neighbors, Singapore has largely kept the relationship discreet, especially in the military sphere.

While long saying it favors the establishment of a Palestinian state, Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan stated last month in Parliament that Singapore would recognize such a state only “when it has an effective government that accepts Israel’s right to exist and categorically renounces terrorism.”

However, if Israel tries to “extinguish … the two-state solution,” he added, Singapore would consider rethinking its stance on a Palestinian state.

The city-state “will not be held hostage by its defense ties with Israel,” he said, and would not give the Jewish state “a free pass” on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Following the Hamas invasion of Oct. 7, 2023, in which thousands of terrorists massacred nearly 1,200 men, women and children — sparking the two-year war that is currently on hold under a shaky American-led deal — the vast majority of Israelis rejected giving the Palestinians a state, saying it would only reward their terrorism.

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