The Indian Ocean tourist destination Maldives is now banning Israelis from entering its territory in an apparent retaliatory move over the war in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The government of the predominantly Muslim island nation announced that President Mohammed Muizzu enacted the ban this week following a recommendation from his cabinet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The Cabinet decision includes amending necessary laws to prevent Israeli passport holders from entering the Maldives and establishing a Cabinet subcommittee to oversee these efforts,\u2019 his office said in a statement, adding that \u2018the President decided to appoint a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The President further decided to set up a fundraising campaign to assist our brothers and sisters in Palestine with the help of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and to conduct a nationwide rally under the slogan \u2018Falastheenaa Eku Dhivehin,\u2019 which translates to \u2018Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine\u2019 to show support,\u2019 the statement also said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
UNRWA has recently faced allegations that some of its employees participated in Hamas\u2019 attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which launched the war in Gaza.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s foreign ministry responded to Muizzu\u2019s ban by urging Israelis to stay away from the Maldives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018For Israeli citizens already in the country, it is recommended to consider leaving, because if they find themselves in distress for any reason, it will be difficult for us to assist,\u2019 the ministry said, according to Reuters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department, which said last year that it has provided $36 million in bilateral foreign assistance to the Maldives since 2018, did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The State Department says the constitution of the Maldives \u2018designates Islam as the state religion, requires citizens to be Muslim, and requires public office holders, including the President, to be followers of Sunni Islam.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The law states that both the government and the people must protect religious unity, and propagation of any religion other than Islam is a criminal offense,\u2019 it adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, around 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives, around 0.6% of its total tourist arrivals, The Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told Fox News Digital that \u2018The Maldives government now aligns itself with the likes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Syria, Algeria, Kuwait and other authoritarian Muslim world states,\u2019 which also ban Israeli passport holders.<\/p>\n
\u2018This will not likely bode well for the Maldives over time. Joining this alliance is often a sign of corruption, radicalization and even exploitation by outside actors,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n
Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of The Congress of Christian Leaders, also responded to the ban on X by saying, \u2018If the Maldives aren\u2019t safe for Israelis then they aren\u2019t safe for any of us.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The Congress of Christian Leaders is issuing a global travel warning: no Christian should feel safe in a country where Islamic extremists determine national policy,\u2019 he also said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
The Indian Ocean tourist destination Maldives is now banning Israelis from entering its territory in an apparent retaliatory move over the war in Gaza.\u00a0 The government of the predominantly Muslim island nation announced that President Mohammed Muizzu enacted the ban this week following a recommendation from his cabinet.\u00a0 \u2018The Cabinet decision includes amending necessary laws <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}