The Maldives government and ruling party have balked at barring Israeli tourists from entering the country, six months after President Mohamed Muizzu “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports.”
After a prolonged period of indecision since the president’s declaration, ruling party lawmakers now favor a targeted ban on Israeli leaders. Tourism associations have warned against collectively banning all Israeli citizens.
The government’s announcement of the ban came on June 2. “The cabinet’s decision includes amending necessary laws to prevent entry into the Maldives [people] with Israeli passports,” the President’s Office said at the time.
The decision made headlines across the globe, fostering a false impression that a ban had already been imposed. The dramatic move earned praise from some quarters, but also drew critical coverage and accusations of bigotry. A U.S. member of Congress pushed legislation to cut off American aid to the Maldives.
But the Maldives parliament moved forward with amendments to the immigration law to bar entry to Israeli passport holders, including Israelis with dual citizenship.
On June 10, in lieu of waiting for government-sponsored legislation, the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) supermajority accepted a bill proposed earlier by opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) member Meekail Naseem.
But the Muizzu administration backpedaled almost immediately, demurring over a “blanket ban” that would apply to all Israeli citizens.
The government has decided to revise the bill to address concerns over “a lot of Palestinian citizens who hold the Israeli passport, counting in the millions,” Attorney General Ahmed Usham told the press, three days after parliament sent the bill to a committee for review.
The bill languished in the committee for five months and the proposed ban was effectively shelved. In the meantime, about 500 Israeli tourists visited the Maldives, according to immigration statistics as of October.
Israeli tourists – predominantly surfers – started arriving in the Maldives after a previous ban was lifted in the early 1990s. But Israel is not a significant source market. Israeli tourists represented just 0.58 percent of arrivals last year. Some 10,966 Israelis visited the Maldives in 2023, down from a peak of 15,748 tourists in 2022.
Meanwhile, as the death toll rose in Gaza, the PNC continued to face censure on social media. But approaching a year of the conflict, fatigue appeared to set in among the public, reflected in declining turnout after months of fundraising efforts and protest marches. There were no large gatherings on the scale of a demonstration outside parliament in November last year that forcefully demanded a ban on Israeli tourists.
But a few individuals persisted. On August 28, two women were arrested after protesting with megaphones outside foreign embassies and the United Nations office in Malé. The police accused Dr Shazra Ibrahim, 36, and Aishath Shadhiya, 47, of harassing an unnamed ambassador. Their daily protests outside diplomatic missions contravened the freedom of assembly law, police told the media. They were also accused of trespassing at the private residences of the British and Saudi Arabian ambassadors.
The women were detained for nine days. The Saudi embassy had complained twice about their protests, prosecutors revealed in court. The High Court later overturned the remand orders, but the Prosecutor General’s office pressed charges against the pair last month.
Following their release, Shazra and Shadhiya conducted boycott awareness campaign on several islands, focusing particularly on Coca-Cola, which operates a factory on the island of Thulusdhoo. Back in the capital, a youth group continued weekly protests, boycotting the KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in Malé.
On October 16, in a much-derided move, the ruling PNC, which controls a 75-seat supermajority in the 93-member parliament, put out a statement calling for the passport ban to be fast-tracked.
When parliament returned from recess in November, an MDP lawmaker proposed a resolution urging swift passage of the bill. During the debate, PNC lawmakers accused the MDP of politicizing the ban to put pressure on the government.
Some PNC members openly questioned the wisdom of the proposed ban. Given current economic woes, the Maldives could not afford to antagonize anyone by taking action that Israel’s Arab neighbors have not, said PNC member Saudhulla Hilmy.
The PNC supermajority’s rejection of the resolution intensified public outrage.
MDP Chairman Fayyaz Ismail chastised the government’s failure to follow through on the “stated goal” of banning the Israel passport. “Explain the reasons to the Maldivian people. They deserve to know and they will understand your inability to carry through your posturing,” he challenged the government.
Former President Abdulla Yameen echoed the criticism. “Parliament is the rubber stamp of the government. If the government wants to do it, they can amend the entire Constitution in three or four hours…Muizzu has no willingness. Muizzu has no willingness to ban Israeli passports,” he declared at a gathering.
The parliamentary committee finally took up the bill on November 12. The PNC majority approved a deadline of February to complete its review and consultation process. But the committee later revised the timeframe and started summoning stakeholders last week.
The ruling party’s new stance became apparent from the remarks of leadership figures.
Ibrahim Falah, the PNC’s parliamentary group leader, suggested that the Maldives should consult Palestine and Arab nations before reaching a decision.
Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim explicitly argued against a blanket ban. “That is because there are Arabs and Muslims with Israeli passports. Also, we must note that even the UN imposes sanctions on military entities and those involved in human rights violations,” the veteran lawmaker explained, advocating for a targeted ban on individuals complicit in war crimes.
Israeli passport holders reside in several other countries such as the United States and Argentina, he noted.
The committee should also conduct an economic impact assessment, Nazim advised.
Appearing before the committee on November 26, the National Hotels and Guesthouses Association warned that a blanket ban could severely damage the tourism industry, implying that powerful Jewish-owned international agencies might retaliate against the Maldives.
“We support restricting entry only for Israeli leaders, excluding the military, as this approach would address specific concerns,” said Ahmed Waheed, vice president of the association.
On the following day, the Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) also backed targeting specific Israeli government officials.
“Our finance ministry has indicated that the Maldives’ financial ratings could be influenced by broader political and economic decisions. This makes it crucial to adopt a nuanced approach,” MATATO President Abdulla Ghiyas told the committee.
Ghiyas was referring to Finance Minister Moosa Zameer linking a downgrade of the Maldives’ credit rating to the proposed ban.
“[The credit rating] is linked to Maldives’ domestic politics. For example, since we began talking about banning Israeli passports, we have seen some people tweeting. We know what is happening,” he told parliament’s budget review committee in early November.
Zameer, who was the foreign minister when the cabinet approved a blanket ban, declined to elaborate.