MDP lawmaker slams gov ‘cowardice’ over Israel passport ban delay

The bill to change Maldives’ laws to ban entries on Israeli passports remains stymied in the Parliament’s National Security Services (241) Committee due to the government’s “cowardice”, says South Galolhu MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem, a politician from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), who submitted the legislature back in May.

He made the remarks on Wednesday morning, during a parliamentary debate on a resolution submitted by fellow MDP lawmaker North Galolhu MP Mohamed Ibrahim (Kudu), calling on the People’s National Congress (PNC) administration to push for the bill to be expedited.

During the debate, Meekail, who submitted the legislature on May 29, said that the one-page bill has remained stymied in the committee stage for 163 days.

Meekail said that when he presented the bill, he made a sincere appeal to fellow lawmakers to treat it as an issue of national interest and put aside political interests in order to expedite work on the legislature.

He said that he had hoped PNC lawmakers, who hold a supermajority in the Parliament, would have courage, but hadn’t even dared to debate on the bill.

“…But on that day, we saw the power and influence of a political party. [PNC’s] PG leader [Inguraidhoo MP Ibrahim Falah] went to each and every lawmaker and told them not to engage in the debate,” said Meekail.

Falah raised a point of order to reject the claim.

“This is an utter baseless lie,” said Falah.

But Meekail believes otherwise.

“You must not treat the Maldivian people as fools. And for what? We are seeing this Parliament being operated with the sole purpose of controlling members politically. Is this what the representatives of the people want? To operate here like puppets, like bots of a political party?” he said.

Meekail said that he wants the Maldives to take a firm stand in condemning Israel’s genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people.

He said that the appeal is not politically motivated.

He also challenged PNC lawmakers to pass the bill “like they passed tax hike bills in under 24 hours.”

 Speaker Abdul Raheem Abdulla interrupted Meekail, and asked that he not refer to lawmakers as “bots”. He said that it violates the honor and dignity of members of the Parliament.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s cabinet made the decision to make legislative changes to ban Israeli passports on June 2.

At the time, the Parliament had already received a bill from Meekail, seeking a blanket ban on travelers with Israeli passports.

Following the cabinet’s decision, the main ruling PNC decided to accept the bill into the Parliament, and make the changes the government wants during the committee stage.

Meekail’s bill is designed to add a clause to Article 8 of Immigration Act, which lists individuals who are barred from entering the Maldives.

It seeks to bar the entry of all Israeli passport holders, including those who have dual citizenship.

However, Attorney General Usham said that a blanket ban on all Israeli citizens could create certain “complications.” He said that his office would submit amendments to the bill.

Meekail's bill was sent to the Security Services Committee for review with a unanimous vote on 88 on June 10. But it remained stymied for the next five months, before the committee finally convened for a meeting regarding the bill on November 12. During this meeting, the committee set a February 2025 deadline to complete the review of the bill, deciding that extensive consultations with various stakeholders are required before making a decision.

Mounting outrage over the atrocities in Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories have sparked protests in the streets of the capital, Male’ City, with Maldivians demanding that the government ban Israeli citizens from entering the country.

Israel’s current war on Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, has killed more than 43,900 Palestinians, many of them women and children. It has also reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble, displaced the vast majority of residents, and resulted in widespread malnutrition. The war has now expanded to neighboring Lebanon.