June 21, 2024, New York, NY – The Maldives has abruptly paused a plan to ban Israeli tourists and Israeli dual-citizens from entering the luxury tourist destination after pressure from the Biden Administration, American lawmakers, and the media. The American Jewish Congress communicated with the Maldivian government through its ambassador in Washington, D.C. on June 10 and cautioned President Mohamed Muizzu’s administration that such a move can stoke violent Islamist extremism and attacks against foreign tourists in his country, whose economy is dependent on tourism.
We welcome the decision to shelve this bad idea for now, and note that at least two Maldivian parliament members, and some resort owners and commentators in Maldivian media urged their government not to ban Israel’s passport. As a face-saver, Maldives used the pretext that it feared Israeli Muslims – a reference to Israeli Arabs – would also be affected by the ban, and hence the decision to pull back. This only confirms our concern, which we conveyed to the Maldivians, that this decision was designed to target Jews and is an abhorrent example of Jew hatred. We urge the Maldives to completely drop this idea and maintain its reputation as a tourist spot open for all. There are many ways to react to the war in Gaza, a conflict that prolongs because of Hamas, not Israel. Punishing Israelis and Jews cannot be an acceptable option.
In a letter to the Maldivian ambassador to the United States, our president Daniel Rosen, Chairman, Jack Rosen, and Vice President Dr. Munr Kazmir, told Amb. Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed in clear terms that Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu proposed a hateful and bigoted law, that an Israel passport ban will be a dog-whistle to extremists and antisemitic forces everywhere to legitimize targeting Jews and Israeli citizens, not to mention destroying Maldives’ reputation as a safe place to visit. This would be a dangerous decision in a country where Maldivian militants have already attacked British, Australian and other tourists. We posed a direct question to Amb. Mohamed: ‘Are Christians next?’ In 2023, the United States sanctioned Maldivian citizens who worked for ISIS and Al-Qaeda. And in 2024, Maldivian members of ISIS terror organization were flown from the border of Turkey-Syria back to Maldives.
We also conveyed to the ambassador that this decision would isolate Maldives among moderate Arab and Muslim states that have turned their backs on this kind of fanaticism.
We continue to support the efforts of Congressional leaders to hold Maldives accountable and condition American aid and tourism to that country in the event this law is revived. We will work with tourism and business entities in the United States, across Asia and globally as we monitor the situation in the Maldives.
Here is the full text of the letter by the leadership at American Jewish Congress to Amb. Mohamed at this link: https://ajcongress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Letter-to-Amb.-Mohamed-American-Jewish-Congress.pdf
