The Indian Ocean tourist destination of the Maldives has banned Israelis from entering its territory in retaliation for the war in Gaza.
The Muslim-majority island nation’s government announced that President Mohamed Moueise had implemented the ban this week following a recommendation from his cabinet.
“Cabinet decisions include amending necessary laws to prevent Israeli passport holders from entering the Maldives and establishing a Cabinet subcommittee to monitor these efforts,” the presidency said in a statement, adding that “the president has decided to appoint a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs.”
“The President further decided to launch a fundraising campaign in collaboration with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to support our Palestinian brothers and sisters and to hold a nationwide rally under the slogan ‘Falastheenaa Eku Dhivehin’ (Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine) to demonstrate support,” the statement said.
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Israeli soldiers, left, work on a tank near the Israel-Gaza border on May 29. The Maldives, right, currently bans Israelis from entering the country. (AP/Tsakhrir Abayov/Nicholas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
UNRWA has recently faced allegations that some of its staff took part in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
In response to Muizz’s entry ban, the Israeli Foreign Ministry urged Israeli citizens to refrain from traveling to the Maldives.
“We encourage Israeli nationals already in Israel to consider leaving the country, as it will be difficult for us to assist them if they find themselves in need for any reason,” the foreign ministry said, according to Reuters.
The U.S. State Department said last year that it had provided $36 million in bilateral foreign aid to the Maldives since 2018, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on Monday.
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Maldives President Mohamed Muizz delivers a national statement at the Global Climate Action Summit during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on December 1, 2023. (REUTERS/Amr Al-Fiqi)
The State Department said the Maldives’ constitution “establishes Islam as the state religion and requires that all citizens be Muslim and that public officials, including the president, be Sunni Muslims.”
“The law stipulates that the government and people must protect religious unity and makes the propagation of religions other than Islam a criminal offense,” it added.
About 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year, about 0.6 percent of the country’s total tourist numbers, according to the Associated Press.
Johnnie Moore, president of the Christian Leadership Conference, responded to X’s travel ban by saying, “If the Maldives is not safe for Israelis, it is not safe for any of us.”
An aerial view of Male, the capital of the Maldives. (Matt Hunt/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“The Christian Leadership Conference issues travel warnings worldwide. No Christian should feel safe in a country where Islamic extremists dictate national policy,” he said.
