Deputy Speaker: Impact assessment required before banning Israeli passports

Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim said on Monday that a ban on Israeli passports should be implemented after an impact assessment.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s cabinet made the decision to make legislative changes to ban Israeli passports on June 2. But the Parliament had already received a bill from the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), seeking a blanket ban on travelers with Israeli passports.

South Galolhu MP Meekail Ahmed Naseem’s bill, submitted on May 29, 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.

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

It was sent to the National Security Services Committee for review with a unanimous vote on 88 on June 10. But work on the bill would remain stalled for the next five months, before the committee finally began work on the bill on November 12.

During a committee meeting on Monday, Nazim, the parliamentary representative for Dhiggaru constituency and top PNC politician, proposed clarifying four main things when consulting with relevant stakeholders. They are:

Whether to implement a blanket ban on Israeli passport as written in the bill, and the reasoning behind the opinion.

Whether dual passport holders should be exempted, and the reasoning behind the opinion.

Whether there are any groups that should be exempt from the passport ban, and the reasoning behind the opinion.

An assessment of the potential economic impact.

“We need to conduct an impact assessment. Decisions made by the Parliament must be strong and informed,” said Nazim.

Also during the meeting, PNC’s parliamentary group leader Ibrahim Falah said that the committee needs to seek a word from Palestine and other Arab nations before making a decision.

During a meeting on November 12, 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 44,000 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.