Maldives will ban entry to people with Israeli passports to show support for Palestine

Is about a measure presented as a show of support for Palestine in the midst of war and with a symbolic effect, due to the small number of Israelis who visit the paradisiacal archipelago.

“President (Mohamed) Muizzu has always supported Palestine against the inhuman atrocities carried out by Israel,” Ali Ishan, Interior Minister of this nation where 98 percent of its inhabitants profess Islam, said in a press conference.

(You can read: Are Hamas and Israel willing to accept the truce plan in Gaza announced by Joe Biden? These are their positions)

Ishan pointed out that The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to “propose changes in legislation to prohibit entry into the Maldives with an Israeli passport”.

The announcement comes after the opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) proposed a similar measure.

Indians, Russians and Chinese are the largest visitors to this nation made up of more than a thousand islands and which lives largely on tourism. Israeli citizens barely account for 0.5 percent of the total 1.8 million visitors the country registered in 2023.

However, according to data from the Maldivian Tourism Department, Their number was increasing until the start of the war with Gaza, not counting the stoppage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

(Also read: The bodies of 120 Palestinians are found after the departure of Israeli troops from Jabalia)

In 2018, just 7,748 Israelis visited the islands, while in 2022 this number had doubled to over 15,000. Their number was reduced to just over 10,000 last year and in the last six months only half a thousand Israelis have ventured to visit the Asian country.

The Maldives broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1974, although during a brief period between 2012 and 2017 both countries signed several agreements.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated this Sunday that Israel is “evaluating an alternative government” to Hamas in the Gaza Strip once its war against the Palestinian Islamist movement ends.

“While we carry out our important military actions, the defense establishment is evaluating an alternative government to Hamas,” Gallant said in a statement.

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Gallant had previously expressed his opposition to an Israeli military authority in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized power from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

The minister, who visited Israeli troops near the border with Gaza this Sunday, described a “framework” that includes “isolating areas” of Gaza, clearing them of Hamas militiamen “and bringing in other forces that allow the formation of an alternative government”.

“The military operation, on the one hand, and the creation
of the possibility of an alternative government, on the other, will allow us to achieve two of the objectives of this war: the elimination of Hamas as a government and military authority in Gaza, and the return of the hostages,” he insisted.

Gallant stated last month that “the day after Hamas” we would see “Palestinian entities take control of Gazaaccompanied by international actors”.