“The biggest concern is that there are many Palestinians with Israeli passports, millions of them. What happens when we impose the blanket ban on them?”
In a not-so-surprising move last October, Maldivian surfers called for an immediate ban on Israelis following Hamas’ butchering of 1200 Jewish civilians.
Barely had the limbs of the slaughtered stopped twitching before an open letter was posted by the Maldives Bodyboarding Association.
“Maldives Bodyboarding Association and the entire surf community strongly condemn and demand an end to the inhumane and unjust actions carried out by Israel against Palestinians.
“We request that the Maldivian government enforce a ban on the entry of Israelis to the Maldives. We also ask the government to continue any efforts aimed at stopping the inhumane actions of Israel and showing solidarity with the Palestinians. We call on the Maldivian government to assist the Palestinians in any way they can.”
The response was, uniformly, positive.
“Maldives has always been a favorite destination to us Arabs, now even more. Thank you for this noble, humanitarian stance.”
“The life you stole and land you annexed from Palestinians ILLEGALLY. Live what’s left of your stolen land and life because the Palestinian cause only grows stronger, and you will be held accountable.”
The Maldives was one of the few Muslim countries that let the Jew in, Israel being one of the first countries in the world to recognise the little state when it shucked British rule in 1965.
That don’t mean it isn’t hardline.
The Maldives bans any public practice of any religion other than Islam and if you ain’t Muslim, you can’t be a citizen.
When ISIS was still big news, the Maldives gained “prominence as a haven for jihadist recruitment” as locals streamed into Iraq and Syria to join the big boys of the Jihadist game.
(Read, Losing a Paradise to Terrorism.)
After the glorious, religion-fuelled butchery of October 7, the government of the Maldives came under terrific pressure to ban Israelis.
It took a little while but just as the ban was going to take effect the attorney general went, uh oh, what about the Arab-Israelis?
“The biggest concern is that there are many Palestinians with Israeli passports, millions of them. What happens when we impose the blanket ban on them?”
Y’see, around two-million, or almost a quarter of the Jewish state is Arab, most of sunni Muslims and most of ‘em Israeli citizens.
Anyway, if you think the Maldives is a benign paradise, yeah, well, no.
A few years back the New York Times reported,
“This island paradise made news recently for a reason other than its pristine beaches and high-end resorts: the gruesome killing of a liberal blogger, stabbed to death by multiple assailants.
“The killing in April of Yameen Rasheed, 29, a strong voice against growing Islamic radicalization, has amplified safety concerns — particularly for foreign tourists, a highly vulnerable group and one that the islands’ economy depends on. It is no idle threat, in a country that by some accounts supplies the world’s highest per-capita number of foreign fighters to extremist outfits in Syria and Iraq.
“Security experts say many resorts are ill equipped to fend off an attack on par with those that have occurred in places like Tunisia and Bali, Indonesia.”
