Maldives ban Israeli tourists ‘in solidarity with Palestine’

The Maldives has shut its doors to Israeli passport holders, citing solidarity with Palestinians and accusing the Jewish State of genocide.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The Maldivian parliament officially voted to ban Israeli tourists from entering the tropical Indian Ocean archipelago as an act of solidarity with Gaza.

“The ratification” of the bill barring Israeli tourists “reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” said in a statement.

“The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause,” the statement read, adding that the ban was effective immediately.

A popular tourist destination for Israelis, more than 11,000 nationals from the Jewish state visited the Maldives, a tiny republic with a population of about half a million, in 2023.

However, since the onset of the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group, the majority-Muslim nation has signaled increasing hostility towards Israel.

In June 2024, the Maldives said it was considering barring Israeli passport holders from entering the country. Shortly after the announcement, Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued an official travel advisory urging Israelis not to visit the islands, as well as encouraging those already there to leave the country.

While the ban was being discussed, a senior Maldivian public figure made it clear that the country was looking to specifically punish Jews, rather than all people with Israeli citizenship.

Maldivian Attorney General Ahmed Usham warned that barring all Israeli passport holders would mean that Arabs with Israeli citizenship – numbering approximately two million people – would be unable to travel to the Maldives.

“The biggest concern is that there are many Palestinians with Israeli passports, millions of them. What happens when we impose a blanket ban? These are matters that need careful consideration,” Usham said at the time.

Yoseph Haddad, an Arab-Israeli Zionist activist, slammed the decision in an Instagram post.

The Maldives did not “ban entry for Palestinians after the October 7 massacre… if you raped, kidnapped, and massacred Israelis you are welcome to vacation there, but if your country defended itself against a terrorist organization you are not allowed entry,” Haddad wrote.

“They didn’t ban entry for citizens of Iran, North Korea, or Syria… only Israelis!”