The Maldives has banned entry into the country by Israeli citizens and will fundraise for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which works directly with Hamas in Gaza and some of whose employees participated in the October 7th terrorist attacks.
If the Maldives were concerned with the plight of Palestinians,
- They wouldn’t ban Israeli passports since ~ 21% of Israeli citizens are actually Palestinian.
- They would take tourism dollars from Israelis and use it to fund aid for Palestinians in Gaza. Except, of course, that the aid would never reach the Palestinians because Hamas steals it and sells it.
The Government of the Maldives did not ban Hamas leadership residing in Qatar. They didn’t ban Syrian passports or Sudanese passports. They banned the Jews.
By law, all citizens of the Maldives must be Sunni Muslim. Yet resorts have alcohol and guests dressing immodestly. Since the nation relies on tourism they thread this needle by allowing resorts in ‘uninhabited areas’ and declaring that Islamic law doesn’t apply in those places. Of course all arriving luggage is screened as passengers exit customs. Don’t bring alcohol or other banned substances into the country, and don’t bring an Israeli passport.
The Maldives has not condemned combatants embedding themselves in hospitals and schools, the use of human shields, or rape of civilian hostages. Here by the way are Hamas weapons being uncovered in a UNRWA school.
Make no mistake, this isn’t banning world leaders with whom you disagree, it is banning all citizens of the Jewish state. American passports, of course, do not contain the bearer’s religion.
These actions will not contribute to the furtherance of a just peace settlement. But they only add more urgency to the need for such a settlement, which the current leadership will not deliver.
Actually , we never wanted to go to Mal-a-la-tete in the first place . And now , especially not .
Israel is a better destination for many reasons .
Banning Israeli folks is more symbolic than anything. Being critical of Israel’s military committing war crimes doesn’t mean you support Hamas or hate Jews.
Using that kind of logic, if you believe invading Iraq and Afghanistan were mistakes, you are a supporter of Saddam Hussein, ISIS and the Taliban.
Until they are near/next to bankruptcy and unemployed and then they may think differently of not being inclusive of all folks who are peace loving and spending $$$$$
I would be careful if you have a US passport that states your place of birth as Israel.
After reading this article, I ERASED going to the MALDIVES from my list! I wouldn’t go if I were given a private jet that seated 14 and the most incredible over water suites and $275,000 USD for spending money.
If Israel wanted to commit actual war crimes or genocide, this war would have been over by mid-October.
Hamas’ charter calls for the genocide of Jews.
Israel is going out of her way to protect a people that wish to put her into the sea.
I don’t recall the Maldives banning anyone after the October 7th attacks, guess they were OK with that, just not the response to the attacks.
Disgusting.
I am planning a holiday at a $700/night (low-season) private island resort. My boxing coach is train8ng there.
I suppose the savvy tourist has a portfolio of passports.
I mean passport documents and visa documents are almost as ridiculous as covid documents during the Plague years.. …..
Scratch South Africa and now the Maldives from my list of places to visit
I mean – they actually have Sharia law in place for their citizens. (But, turn a blind eye to whatever very un-muslim things foreigners with $$$ are doing on their islands of course).
Islamic Imperialism and conquests reached all the way to south Asia, which is why of course we have Islamic nations in South Asia. They were at least not Arabized like much of the middle east and north africa, which saw the most brutal forms of those conquests.
I always thought it was way too far to travel anyways. Makes it easier now to pass on going there. Hopefully others follow. From a US citizen
Gary, if this was about being Jewish then I’d agree with you. Since they’re not banning Jews from other countries this is pretty apparently aimed at Israel’s actions, which many people feel are disproportional to the horrific October 7 attacks. Lots of people, including inside Israel now judging from the 100,000 Israelis who just protested to end the fight, see civilians getting slaughtered by the thousands because they literally have no place to go and are on the edge of starvation. Unfortunately, if Netanyahu ends the attacks then his coalition dissolves and he’s back to being a defendant in criminal proceedings so delay and killing more Palestinians is in his direct interest.
More BS from Gary. Maldives have not said Jews are not welcome, they have banned Israelis due to the actions of the Israeli government. Non-Israeli Jews (the majority of Jews) are welcome. Christian/Palestinian(Muslim)/Buddhist/Druze Israelis are banned. Try as you will, this is not a ban on your religion, it is a ban on a country whose leaders’ decisions they disagree with.
Good coverage we won’t see elsewhere….Maldives is off my bucket list and I’ll share your report with my own readers. Perhaps you should add that ‘Palestinians aren’t welcomed in Arab countries’..hah! That’s the ultimate irony, with so many protesting Israel but refusing to let Palestinians even visit much less take-up residence.
@farnorthtrader – in fact, about half the world’s jews live in Israel
My point that Palestinians are banned with this move as well, that you repeat, makes my point about the stupidity – the futility – of this feckless move by the government of the Maldives.
BOYCOTT Maldives. That Racist little country is off my travel list
@Christian “if Netanyahu ends the attacks then his coalition dissolves”
Hamas hides behind civilians, inside hospitals, weapons caches in U.N. schools. This is a terrible humanitarian tragedy BECAUSE OF HAMAS.
The politics in Israel is not unlike that of the U.S. after 9/11, people wanted to be safe. Since 9/11 500k – 1mm civilians were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. 20,000 French civilians were killed at the Battle of Normandy. War is terrible and destructive indeed. Here it is BECAUSE OF HAMAS that these tragedies are occurring.
Thanks for this information, I have now taken this place off my bucket list. Will can el my reservations for next January.
@Kluge
How ironic that you use the term “logic”, when yours is so obviously flawed. But congrats on being the first Hamas terrorist sympathizer to post. Your logical ability aligns with that of most of your comrades.
Banning Israeli citizens is not simply being critical of Israeli war crimes (there are 1000x over more war crimes committed by Hamas, btw…but you aren’t concerned about that, are you?). Remember when Trump said he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the US? I don’t remember leftists like you saying that would only be symbolic.
Western leftists aligning with islamic terrorists, the religion that puts homosexuals to death and gives women no rights, right after they slaughtered over 1000 innocent civilians, raped, took hostages, committed infanticide…not to mention for decades and still currently fire rockets indiscriminately into civilian territory, is truly the most idiotic of alliances. Yet you forget about all that, and naively believe Hamas when they talk about their own civilian casualties, and take what they say at face value (they count their fighters as civilians, so their numbers are inflated by about 1000% at a minimum). You are the most unthinking, malleable, useful idiots in modern history.
We are entering epic clown world times.
It’s a muslim country so this isn’t really a shock.
Maldives is such a terrible travel destination as it has always been surprising to me that people go to such effort, time, and expense to go there to sit on an artificial and/or normally uninhabited island the middle of the ocean where they are more likely to encounter a Bangladeshi worker than they ever will a real Maldivian or any real culture of any kind other than fake luxury marketing. The Maldives is a horrible place that practices an austere form of Islam as it’s official state religion and has a legal system under Sharia law that has long banned and prosecuted homosexuals, Christians, and now Jews. So many nicer, better, more interesting places to go that are closer and far more culturally enriching.
Hopefully we see this trend continue until Israelis are confined inside the borders of their own small piece of land just as Palestinians are. If you look at who has suffered more during the past 75 years, the answer is obvious.
In doing this, they aren’t banning by religion or even saying that members of any religion are not welcome there. But they are sending a message that ordinary Israeli passports won’t be accepted for use to enter into the country — or maybe even also transit via the country — regardless of whether the Israeli passport-user is Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze or any other other religious identity.
Given how the Holocaust-surviving Jewish German co-founder of a major international human rights group has said he has come to believe that the Netanyahu regime is a rogue regime, I am pretty sure he is welcome to visit the Maldives on a non-Israeli passport.
I am opposed to the Maldives’ entry ban for those only having an Israeli passport available for use to travel, but countries playing such games with passport users from one or more “pariah state” is really nothing new.
Doesn’t Netanyahu rule over about an equal number of non-Jewish Arabs as Jews due to the occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and Golan? Oh, that is right, a large proportion of the Arabs under Israeli rule are denied Israeli citizenship and Israeli passports — not that many of them want Israeli citizenship as much as they want a sovereign, contiguous Palestinian state in the land of their great-grandparents’ birth.
Well I guess I won’t be spending my money in the Maldives!! Jews not welcome. Nothing new! That’s a very old saying . Really racist
@Gary – Then maybe Israel should take some ownership of the blame. They nurtured, funded, and supported Hamas as a power play against the more moderate Palestinians. That got away from Israel and the monster they created is now fighting for its life. Despite that, the monster didn’t create the civilians that it is hiding within. Didn’t the Jewish people use guerilla warfare against the British before the formation of Israel? I seem to recall some pretty awful things were done prior to WWII that don’t get much mention these days.
None of this is to say that Israel shouldn’t defend itself. It should and must. Problem is, Bibi has yet to spell out any sort of plan for what comes after. That just leaves us with lots of dead or starving civilians and nothing resembling a solution in sight. Do you see Israel presenting any viable postwar scenarios? After over half a year they surely must have some at the ready. Yet they’re not sharing, which means nothing good.
Is this the correct forum to discuss Jews versus Palestinians?
Not sure.
I would say not. But what do I know?
Many a savvy traveler has more than one citizenship and the proportion of the Israeli population that have dual/multiple-citizenship I seems to be very high and probably one of the highest proportions of any country with over 100k US citizens living in it. I assume that the majority of those Israeli citizens who have visited the Maldives previously have a right to a passport also from a county beside Israel.
I am no fan of dual-citizenship for US citizens or those of any country — and thus I refuse to seek or accept citizenship in any and all countries beside that of the country of my birth — but I think that many sensible people should not trust even their own government and thus always have an escape plan available and thus look at even buying citizenship in other countries if not already holding dual-/multi-citizenship status.
Thanks for the information, Gary! The place is now off our bucket list.
“Given how the Holocaust-surviving Jewish German co-founder of a major international human rights group has said he has come to believe that the Netanyahu regime is a rogue regime, I am pretty sure he is welcome to visit the Maldives on a non-Israeli passport.”
Hey, this old guy said it’s a rogue regime, and he’s “Jewish,” so it must be true. It’s funny though how there are quite a lot of actual (or imagined) rogue regimes, but somehow Israel is the only country that get’s singled out for vilification in this way. I wonder why that could be? It is odd.
It’s funny too that you’ll never see people justify the vilification of any other group except Jews, using the opinion of somebody from that group as evidence. This is really an odd feature of debate about Israel that is seen repeatedly by people who don’t want to think of themselves as antisemitic . . . like the now passé rationalization that “some of my best friends are Jewish.”
I knew then it was a place to avoid.
Jihadi holidays in the Maldives; no thanks!
Sept 2018
President Abdulla Yameen said the country’s religious leaders had complained that the sculpture represented idols, which are banned by Islam.
Police armed with pickaxes and power tools have destroyed the world’s first tidal gallery at a holiday resort in the Maldives after it was deemed “offensive to Islam”.
The gallery, at the Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi, which opened in July, featured semi-submerged exhibits that disappeared and reappeared as the tide went in and out.
“My point that Palestinians are banned with this move as well, that you repeat, makes my point about the stupidity – the futility – of this feckless move by the government of the Maldives.”
Sorry Gary, no, it does not make your point, it makes my point. Indeed, if this was to punish all Jewish people, then you would be correct, it would be stupid and futile. On the other hand, if it is exactly what it is claimed to be, a ban on Israeli travelers as a protest against the Israeli government actions, then it is not stupid, although it remains futile as the Israeli government clearly doesn’t care about the country’s standing on the world stage. And I was aware that almost half of Jewish people live in Israel. I specifically said the majority of Jews live outside of Israel and that is factually correct.
Your constant reading into actions well beyond what the actions actually are is becoming tiresome. You read into this action against the Israeli government as an attack on all Jewish people. North Koreans and Cubans are effectively banned from travelling to the US. These are officially atheist countries. Does that mean that all atheists are unwelcome in the US. Of course not. it means that North Koreans and Cubans are unwelcome in the US.
And wearing a Palestine flag pin does not mean that you want to kill all Jewish people or Israelis or even want to displace them from the internationally recognized borders of Israel. It only means you support a country for Palestinians. Do you truly believe that the citizens of the 139 countries that have recognized a Palestinian state support the elimination of all Jews from Israel?
As others gave pointed out, this is not a ban based on religion but on citizenship. @Gary should STOP trying to play religious victim but instead question if the genocidal behavior of the Israeli government warrants a ban.
It is @Gary (and other comment writers’) right to refuse doing business with Maldives in response to this new policy. It is good to see that so many people SUPPORT the concept of BOYCOTTING, divesting, and sanctioning. I look forward to @Gary posting about how BDS is a valid response to behavior we find abhorrent and urging the states that have anti-BDS laws to repeal them!
Mak is off again. People have been referring to what Sudan has done in Darfur in this century as having the intent of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Much the same for China’s approach to Uyghurs. Much the same for Myanamar’s approach to Rohingya. All in the current century. Israel should not be held to a lesser standard — especially not when it’s my tax money being used to primarily kill and to provide diplomatic cover to mostly kill and repeatedly displace a population of civilians which are overwhelmingly women and minor children — the very segment of a nation which is most critical to keep a nation alive and growing.
I always go to a “travel blog” so I can get up to speed on world events. Gary, try to stay in your lane since you don’t seem to cover travel and better than politics.
The people most hated by others on the basis of their religious identity are Muslims nowadays. The non-Muslim antisemites of the world and their successors have mostly migrated to having Muslims as the primary enemy religious identity to insult, remove, keep out and destroy. So while antisemitism has definitely gotten much worse in the last 25 years and more recently than it used to be in the 1980s and early 1990s, Islamophobia has gotten exponentially bigger and more widespread during these years than even antisemitism.
While it is wisely said that the treatment of Jewish minorities are the canary in the coal mine about the state of civilization, the treatment of Muslim and other minorities are also a canary in the coal mine when it comes to the state of civilization.
I am gay. I ban all muslim countries. That’s my choice.
I prefer to give my money to Israel.
Thanks for mentioning this Gary. Eliminating the Maldives from my bucket list made my upcoming trip planning that much easier.
V. odd. I don’t understand why Israelis are associated with the government of Israel. I don’t want to be associated with the US gov.
MAK-Great points but many are deaf and blind —
What would America do if a 10/7 took place By Mexico in L.A. —
To get an idea Take a look at WW2 what UK & US do to DRESDEN
You voted for Hamas – this is what you get
@ Pascal +100%
Here, here!!
A huge proportion of Israelis have served or are serving in the IDF or are reservists for Israeli security forces. The ultra-orthodox Israelis having been the major exception to that along with Israeli Arabs. In such an environment and others, some deliberately and maliciously blend the line between civilian and militant actors embedded in society to try to cover for “collateral damage” deliberately accepted by militant actors — be they militant state actors like Israel or militant non-state actors like Hamas.
Congratulations to @GUWonder for almost the ONLY sensible comments to this unfortunate post. I bear no grudge against Jews (and certainly not towards Mr. Leff) but everyone who spoke up to condemn the Maldivians should pause and think why is it that Israelis are disliked almost universally outside the US and Israel.
11 night December trip to the W cancelled. My $30k will happily be spent elsewhere.
“@GUWonder People have been referring to what Sudan has done in Darfur in this century as having the intent of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Much the same for China’s approach to Uyghurs. Much the same for Myanamar’s approach to Rohingya. All in the current century. Israel should not be held to a lesser standard — especially not when it’s my tax money being used to primarily kill and to provide diplomatic cover to mostly kill and repeatedly displace a population of civilians which are overwhelmingly women and minor children — the very segment of a nation which is most critical to keep a nation alive and growing.”
How many countries ban citizens of Sudan or Myanmar from entering their country based upon the wars of their countries? How many protests on college campuses have there been protesting them? How many Sudanese or Burmese fear for their lives in Europe or North America because of the real genocides going on in their countries? How many Burmese houses of worship have been defiled? How many UN Security Counsel condemnations have their been of Sudan or Burma? How many times has the Prime Minister of the Maldives referenced the 1.2 million Muslim refugees of Burma’s genocide? None of these things have happened – but happen commonly to Israel and the Jewish diaspora around the world – despite these genocides, because nobody cares care about genocide so much as they are obsessed about Jews.
Of course I can go on and on as even these two examples make a far from complete set of mass murders, genocides, and depravities that make Gaza look like the sundry war that it is . . . and one that Israel didn’t start. But I lived long enough in enough places where antisemitism is very common – something that I think North Americans are only starting to become familiar with – to understand that facts have nothing to do with the views of the Israel-Gaza conflict and that this is just a continuation of hatreds that have existed and festered in Europe and the Middle East for 1000+ years.
Europeans have systematically exterminated their Jews in gas chambers, and Jews have been expelled from all of the Middle East and North Africa such that their ancient and once thriving communities are extinct. Of great relevance is that every act of barbarity against Jews was based upon fake conspiracy theories ranging from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jewish conspiracies to kill babies for their blood, Jewish conspiracies against the Aryan race, Jewish conspiracies to overthrow the King, or the various conspiracies imagined against the Arabs. Yet people want to believe that all of this history of antisemitic conspiracy theories that rationalized centuries of antisemitic hatred is merely a giant coincidence and has absolutely nothing to do with the current vilification of Israel.
People like you want to believe that all of those conspiracies were fake, but this one is definitely real and the Jews are conspiring to commit genocide, steal land, and take over the Middle East from the Arabs – against all contrary evidence – unless they are stopped by people of virtue like you? Give me a break. I was not born yesterday. This is just the latest conspiracy theories, as much based in fact as all the others to rationalize the exact same thing.
The Seychelles, Mauritius & Reunion are much more interesting anyway.
I’ve been treated very friendly in all of them, and you will actually interact with the locals.
Tourists, money & capital go where they are treated well.
We should pray the day eventually comes that El Al is allowed to fly to the entire Middle East. The ongoing wars play a great deal in the cause of poverty in non-oil Muslim states.
Many don’t understand that even 0.1% of the IDF response would be an outrage in many of the neighboring countries. But that is something that the Israeli government must negotiate with, especially with the Saudis. It is their responsibility, and should be free of interference from the US or China.
Politics makes strange bedfellows, and there are many in high places on both sides who want to deposit migrants from Gaza into the Western lands. This must be furiously resisted.
Bye Felicia Maldives.
They went off my list when they started aligning with China.
And many of their reefs are crap
@Christian ” They nurtured, funded, and supported Hamas as a power play against the more moderate Palestinians. ”
This really does misunderstand Israeli politics, it is also not true. Over and over Israel has offered Palestinians not just a state but territory concessions as well, ~ 97% of the territory they’ve asked for (and land swaps for the 3% they cannot honor, turning over Jewish neighborhoods). These offers haven’t just been rejected, they’ve been met with terrorist violence for decades.
That feeds a conservative politics which has privileged security and so yes those leaders haven’t sought rapprochement.
It was certainly a mistake to think that Israel could live with Hamas on its borders. We’ve now seen what that does. And it explains why Israel now believes it cannot tolerate Hamas any longer. Do you remember the U.S. reaction when Obama finally “got” bin Laden?
@GUWonder “In doing this, they aren’t banning by religion or even saying that members of any religion are not welcome there.”
That’s not a pretext you accepted when Donald Trump did it to Muslims, my friend.
Gary, your continued conflation of “Jews” and “Israel” is dishonest at best. There are plenty of American Jews (and Israeli Jews, for that matter) that vehemently disagree with the genocidal right-wing actions of the Israeli government.
lol, whatever.
They’ll be under water in a few years. Hey, maybe they can relocate to gaza.
Hamas claimed their reasons for launching the attack on Oct 7 were to prevent the destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque. They do wrongly claim the entire complex, which is properly a shared site of all three of the Abrahamic religions.
Their real reason was to prevent diplomatic recognition of Israel and Saudi Arabia, which would move other moderate Muslim states in the same direction.
This ego boosting by the Maldives government is an indication that Hamas leaders have gotten what they wanted, regardless of the dead civilians in Gaza. The government of Israel has played into their hands.
Screw the Maldives and their obnoxious government
Hope Hamas doesn’t take over
Actually maybe they will
I’m perplexed at what they are hoping to accomplish with this. It will do nothing but bring drama and hardship to the one thing that holds this sinking nation in place, tourism. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you?
The reality is that while this seemingly affects less than 1% of their visitors it does extend further. A pretty bi-partisan majority of the country is pro Israel and will be very taken aback by this. Not to mention the large population of American Jews that vacation there. As well those in Europe.
Those numbers could amount to a pretty robust base that is forgoing out of principle a trip to Maldives. It’s a serious ban that may very well backfire to a point that takes down the economics of their tourist based economy far more than they imagine.
Perhaps they imagine that they are the only beach destination in the world. Far from it.
@Gary – “Over and over Israel has offered Palestinians not just a state but territory concessions as well, ~ 97% of the territory they’ve asked for (and land swaps for the 3% they cannot honor, turning over Jewish neighborhoods).”
You say this often and both my experience with and history of Israel are certainly weaker than yours so I’ll break this down to one simple question: When was the most recent time that Israel offered the 97% that you cite, last year, 2020, or perhaps as far back as a decade ago? If it was decades ago then the relevance is pretty limited. Otherwise we may as well cite pre-WWII as well since we’re not speaking of remotely current circumstances. If it was within the past decade, I stand chastised and corrected.
Such a shame that the epitome of vacation escapism has turned into the hub of politics…the locals who support the fantastic tourist industry in the Maldives should speak to their idiot Head of State. We now need to turn to the Maldives alternative. I’m sure there are many…let’s start focusing on that. It’s a shame. What a gorgeous place.
Maldives has been taken over by a Jihadi government under the influence of China. With the stupidity that comes guaranteed by that combination, they also sent unfriendly signals to India, which has been the major source of aid, disaster help, free Covid vaccine, as well as tourism income. Indian tourists started opting for friendlier destinations, and it also became clear that China never intended to put any serious money in Maldives—only grab a few islands. So now Maldives are doing road shows in India begging tourists to come back. They may soon be doing the same with Israel. Just ignore the fools, go where you are welcome.
Well they won’t be seeing my American Jewish dollars ever! Still that in your pipe & smoke it.
@ Gary — So, when is your next trip to the PH Maldives?
@Christian: I have studied this history going back to pre-Abrahamic times. In all of recorded history there has never been an empire, a country or even a city government called Palestine. That designation was given to a small area by Romans and it meant “backward people”. There has never been a religion or a language called Palestinian. There has never been an archaeological dig with Palestinian artifacts. The Quran mentions Israel 43 times, Palestine 0 times.There is no history of a Palestinian nation struggling for freedom from Roman, Turkish, British, or Arab rule. This artificial nation was invented in 1967 as a weapon against Israel to continue the millennia long war fueled by nothing but religious hatred. Israelis have been foolishly generous, but perhaps they were tired after 2000 years of exile, anti-semitism, etc., and tried the high road. Mistake! The only way to deal with Islamic hatred of Jews is how Allied nations dealt with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan: I don’t recall any peace talks, or food + medicine shipments for “civilians” during WW2, do you?
@AKTCHI
Well said!
One problem though, hate doesn’t care about facts, it’s plain and simple hate! And unfortunately hate to Jews comes easy to a lot of people through most of history …
It’s quite simple. You’re either with civilization, or you’re with the terrorists.
Thank you Gary for standing with morality! Time for Hamas to love their children more than they hate Jews! It’s not and was never about land, this is hate and don’t think for a second they don’t hate America as well….
This will not end well for The Maldives.
Nor should it…
They’re not banning Jews. They’re banning Israelis. Nice attempt at twisting facts. Why do all right whingers do this?
Time to boycott Maldives.
@747always you must have never opened a Bible. Land of Israel given to the Children of Israel. Jews and the holy land are connected. Facts. Hamas at least states their goal openly, kill every Jew…
The Maldives is officially off my bucket list…
Why a country that demands anti-freedom, anti-women, pro-terrorism, Shariah law was on any normal persons bucket list to begin with is a great question…
+Mak’s comments
Oh, and I just saw this welcome response.
“The Congress of Christian Leaders is issuing a global travel warning: no Christian should feel safe in a country where Islamic extremists determine national policy.”
The Catholic-majority country of Mexico has now elected a female President who happens to have European Jewish ethnic origins. We in the US couldn’t even elect Hillary Clinton over Don the Con, and here we are concerned about the Maldives adding immigration restrictions based on country of passport issuance in the run up to Don the Con being re-elected as US President even after being found guilty by a Trump attorney-vetted jury on 34 felony counts under state law. Why am I not worried about the Maldives’ revised immigration restrictions when that country’s government has been repeatedly in turmoil over the last several years and has never really been much of a bastion of equal rights and equal civil liberties for all? And yet only now do we see a right-wing led push to cut the Maldives off? If the Maldives had killed tens of thousands of minors in less than 12 months, then I would be more concerned about the Maldives than what this sick right-wing Israeli government has been doing to the children and “unborn children” — fetuses — of Gaza within the last 7 months. The sick hypocrisy of that so-called “Congress of Christian Leaders” isn’t really surprising. Doesn’t that group include those right-wing Christian wackos who have been wishing for Armageddon to hit Israel so that Jesus can rule the devastated world of some desired prophesy?
“The Congress of Christian Leaders” is led by a pro-T-rump dude who supported “the Muslim ban” from Trump. That says it all.
@JD “Such a shame that the epitome of vacation escapism has turned into the hub of politics…the locals who support the fantastic tourist industry in the Maldives should speak to their idiot Head of State. We now need to turn to the Maldives alternative. I’m sure there are many…let’s start focusing on that. It’s a shame. What a gorgeous place.”
In fact, the Maldivian hotel industry has never had much to do with the Maldives or any place other than corporate Board Rooms in Abu Dhabi and Singapore. The hotels are mostly owned by Private Equity funds from the Gulf or Asia and most of the employees mostly come from Bangladesh. The hotels are all remote off shore enclaves, and your chance of encountering any real culture or having any real experience unique to the Maldives hovers around zero.
As for alternatives, there is no shortage. India is developing the Andaman and Nicobar islands – which already got a shot in the arm last year because of the Maldives’ hostility to Hindus – and the beaches in Sri Lanka are beautiful and the culture absolutely vibrant. For Europeans there are beautiful remote beaches all down the coast of East Africa (especially Moçambique, Lamu, etc.) and for those in North America there is the huge coast of the Brazilian Northeast which are the most beautiful and empty beaches in thew world and without compare in my opinion, along with interesting local culture and exceptionally friendly people (not to mention Ilha Grande near Rio which is spectacular). North Americans can get to the fantastic places in Indonesia with no more difficulty than getting to the Maldives.
I’m always a bit disappointed for them when somebody tells me that they are going to the Maldives given all the much more interesting places to go, and I hope now people will head there instead out of solidarity for decency.
*elsewhere.
@Mantis. Again, being critical of Israel doesn’t make me a Hamas supporter. Hamas has killed several thousand civilians. Israeli govt and military have killed over 30k. All three are terrorists.
When trump wanted to ban Muslims from entering the country it wasn’t symbolic because it didn’t happen. It was rhetoric and pandering to his supporters. He couldn’t ban them, and even if he wanted to, there wouldn’t be any way of actually doing it.
Though keep calling anyone who disagrees with you a leftist whatever (in my case, you couldn’t be more wrong)… it builds up your cred among your fellow cultists.
This is as much about the tail wagging the dog. There have been more and more incidents involving radical terrorism targeted against the government of the Maldives itself, in this sort of an environment it’s going to create incident if targeted groups travel to a nation where they’ll inevitably be attacked.
They’ve also had this adversarial situation with Indian tourists and the Modi government recently, so Sri Lanka is I guess capitalizing on that.
It’s really not safe to travel to these types of places as things are, the whole region is inflamed. Try the UAE recently, it’s not rational people, they don’t even know who they are.
As always, @guwonder is talking out his rear-end. There was no “Muslim ban” by Trump. The next thing wonder the clown gets right will be the first.
is there any other country with a similar, or variant of, this kind of ban?
I guess I’ll no longer be flying my highly pressurized tube into the Male.
On the same days that Norway decided to ban Russian tourists.
While I strongly despise the regimes of both Russia and Israel, banning individual citizens from those countries seems a bit over-the-top and pointless. It sort of goes against my firm beliefs in freedom and the rights of man.
Then again, my own country keeps trying to ban people who aren’t white enough, and half of its population would gladly see a muslim/latino ban in place. So who am I to criticize others?
Maldiveds is a great complainer that should look inward. Perhaps they will when sea level overtakes the trash island where they engage in open pit burning of their trash 24/7 while complaining about the WORLD causing the rising sea level.
Never planned on going there anyway. So, it’s back to Tahiti next Spring. Doing it the long way this time. From Malta to Japan for a week, then on to Tahiti, and back. So much to see and do. The people and country are great, as are the fantastic beaches on Morea. They even have over-water accommodations as well.
Pay for climate change yourself. The Maldives wants to beg the West to protect them and move them. Have fun with Chinese tourists and then see if the Gov of China will stop building coal plants and will simultaneously pay for your protection. Big mistake to ban Israel and I hope all Jewish diaspora ever visit those rocks in a bathtub ever again.
I have different positions on some geopolitical and other matters than our friendly neighborhood blog host does, but this blog has always covered topics of personal interest to him even if they didn’t necessarily appeal to all or much of the audience for the blog. Either way, this topic and a BDS angle against the Maldives seems to be a trending topic in the travel news and related social media space. Weirdly, this topic seems to get more coverage in some parts than the pain and suffering of Palestinian children under an Israeli siege and subject to a blockade like no other in decades. But this isn’t really surprising to me — the world is awful at valuing all lives as mattering equally with all lives and so tribalism often comes out when dealing with crimes perpetrated by or against “the other” and the victim is of a different ethnic or religious background than the malicious or criminally negligent perpetrator.
Magnifico is wrong again and struggles with reading comprehension and/or is beating a dead horse of his own imagination.
Trump called for a “Muslim ban” repeatedly while campaigning and then blacklisted a few Muslim-majority countries as President. That “Muslim ban” even led to some chaos with Global Entry being revoked for no good reason other than the nationality-based “ban” that the Trump Admin wanted.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/29/trump-asked-for-a-muslim-ban-giuliani-says-and-ordered-a-commission-to-do-it-legally/
Within the last 10 years, Sri Lanka has seen a massive terrorist attack which killed more wealthy “western” tourists than the Maldives has seen in the same time period. But the chances of a foreign visitor ending up 6 feet under because of a terrorist attack in the Maldives or Sri Lanka or any other popular tourist places is not non-existent.
Guess where my sympathies lie. Hint: I was in Warsaw last week. You know, the country where 6 million Poles were slaughtered, 3 million of them Jews (90% of the Jewish population).
Señor Leff talked about and called it “the Muslim travel ban”:
https://viewfromthewing.com/on-wednesday-the-muslim-travel-ban-will-end-and-masks-will-become-a-federal-mandate-for-travel/
Trump called for a “Muslim ban”.
@Kluge says:
@Mantis. Again, being critical of Israel doesn’t make me a Hamas supporter. Hamas has killed several thousand civilians. Israeli govt and military have killed over 30k. All three are terrorists.
I really do wonder about where people have learned their bizarre moral values such that right and wrong isn’t so much about good and evil but about a relative body count. Young people are tought that the weaker part is always right and the stronger always wrong – and this leads to strange and immoral conclusions. The Allies killed millions of Japanese and German civilians, flattened those countries beyond recognition and would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender, long past Japan or Germany had any offensive capabilities. Did that make it wrong to assure the world that it wouldn’t be subject to the mass atrocities of Japan and Germany again? It is one thing not to know the facts – there are plenty of examples here – but it’s almost worse not knowing how to think about them.
Poor poor @g-u-r-a-clown. Nope, wasn’t a “Muslim Ban,” no matter what the ComPost says. The seven nations in the order were actually chose by President Obama, and for good reason.
You can read the actual text and background here.
https://sethfrantzman.com/2017/01/28/obamas-administration-made-the-muslim-ban-possible-and-the-media-wont-tell-you/
Now, please return to your ignorant, impotent yelping…
@Mak The Israeli government and military have not killed over 30K civilians. 11-14K of the dead have been armed Hamas, members of a group sworn to the genocide of every Israeli. If every government and military is actually a terrorist organization (especially the ones involved in defensive wars they did not start) then I guess the US and every nation in the world with any military are terrorists too. The thing is, when people intentionally gaslight and use the wrong terms they no longer have a meaning.
@Larry
Of course I agree. I was merely quoting the post I was responding to. As far as I’m concerned, every civilian death is occasioned by Hamas’ barbaric rapes, murders, and kidnappings on 7/10, as well as their war crimes of embedding their military troops and their rockets and war materiel within civilian neighborhoods and using their people as human shields. If I were Israel I would be precisely as concerned with civilian deaths in Gaza as the UK was in Dresden and the US was in Hiroshima, which is not on the same level of importance as winning the war.
Bravo Gary.
Thank you for having the guts to post this.
I applaud you!
This tool is going on and on about them “banning Jews” but starts it out with them banning a country with citizens who are 21% Palestinian. Which one is it, Gary?!
“Islamic Shari’ah”. Islam is the official religion of the Maldives and open practice of any other religion is forbidden.”
The Maldives will never be on my travel list. Chile is next this summer, followed by Romania.
Contrary to Magnifico’s clownish indications, Obama didn’t call for a “Muslim ban”. The “Muslim ban” call was Trump’s doing and got implemented under the Trump Admin in 2021 after Trump was inaugurated.
The Obama Admin did a US VWP use restriction. That US VWP list was a list of countries of almost entirely Christian-majority nations and aimed at nationals of primarily Christian-majority countries who had traveled recently to or had citizenship from a small list of Muslim-majority countries but would have otherwise been entitled to US VWP use as a national of the Christian-majority countries on the US VWP list at the time of the US VWP restriction implementation under the Obama Admin.
Go back to the circus, Magnifico, as you are in over your head when it comes to this subject matter area. Don’t buy Muslim-hating Magnifico’s “whataboutism”.
Vin, that is correct. Could as well say it is banning Muslims, banning Christians, banning Druze and banning atheists along with banning Jews. The Maldives is not banning by religion. It’s restricting by country of passport-issuance. Personally, I am more annoyed by countries which:1) ask for religious identity on visa applications than by countries that restrict immigration by passport-issuing country; or 2) go from being de facto visa on arrival to de facto visa/evisa before departure for US and EU/Schengen country citizens.
No comment about how Israel is going to a de facto evisa requirement for US and EU passport users? That is going to be more annoying than this Maldives restriction on Israeli passport use to enter or transit the Maldives.
@GUWonder “No comment about how Israel is going to a de facto evisa requirement for US and EU passport users? That is going to be more annoying than this Maldives restriction on Israeli passport use to enter or transit the Maldives.”
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts, and as you have lost the argument your statements have devolved into falsehood. Israel does not require an “evisa” for US citizens, or for the vast majority of countries. Like the US (ESTA) and the EU (ETIAS), and a growing list of countries presently or in the near future, Israel will require a travel authorization to be submitted before flying. If that is going to be “more annoying” than people being barred from certain countries, that could be because the later won’t affect you at all. In any case, the assertion that it is an “eVisa” is false.
Mak again is having problems with reading comprehension or deliberately misrepresenting what was stated in my post.
The fact is Israel will be requiring visas of sort for American and EU passport users to come as tourists. They are building an evisa system for just that.
Trial first and then mandate, straight from the promised land of milk and honey:
https://www.gov.il/en/departments/topics/eta-il/govil-landing-page
It is to be an evisa. Pre-travel permission being required in such context is a de facto visa requirement.
Mak needs practice in understanding the implication of verb tense use in sentences since he can’t get his act together in properly understanding what was written and yet peddles falsehoods about what I stated. It’s not too late for you Mal to sign yourself up for remedial reading in English.
For you* Mak.
Of the 11,000 or so Israeli passport users who would visit the Maldives on any Israeli passport in a given year, a lot of those Israeli visitors probably have an entitlement to a non-Israeli passport as Israelis with dual/multi-citizenship status and can use non-Israeli passports to go to the Maldives. So even with this ban hitting passports issued by the Netanyahu regime country, most Israelis with previously booked trips to the Maldives should still be able to get there anyway if they really care about going at this point.
So the Maldives was fine to visit and peddle visits to the country until the moment the country again banned Israeli passport use for entry to the country? I guess it’s like the “values voters” who support the con man-in-chief to become President again even after being found guilty on 34 felony counts by a jury vetted by the lawyers hired by the “loaded” con-man.
It’s rather interesting how people who highlight the lack of religious freedom in Maldives nowadays jumped on board this kick about religious freedom in the Maldives only after the Maldives gets around to again blocking Israeli passport use to visit their country. Even just two years ago, the USG was again highlighting the problem in the Maldives — a problem years before that too, but which not so ironically took off as an issue in reports after the Maldives had gotten a bit more into letting China and Pakistan play it against India.
@GUWonder “It is to be an evisa. Pre-travel permission being required in such context is a de facto visa requirement.”
There are big lies about Jews – the Protocols, blood for Matzohs, organ harvesting, lust for “Greater Israel,” and tiny lies like maintaining that an ESTA style filing is requiring American citizens to receive an “eVisa.” Though some are more harmful than others, at the end of the day, they all come from the same place and the same people and rolling back the hatred requires proper understanding of the perpetrators and their strategies of dehumanization and delegitimization of Jews and the only Jewish State.
Oh my, g-u-r-a-clown… all that effort, and still nothing of substance to say. At least you’re still shrill lol. The seven countries that had the temporary ban, and again, from a list generated by Obama, represent about 8% of the world’s Muslim population.
Don’t worry, I’ll do the math for you. That means that 92% of the world’s Muslim population were completely unaffected.
But sure… “Muslim” ban.
You are such a screeching, ignorant, fool.
But good for laughs!
ESTA is an electronic visa in all but name. I remember very much the semantics and hoop-jumping going on inside the relevant departments/agenices and some of the legislative committees in the US when this was in the works and even afterwards.
Israel is headed in the same direction of having an evisa regime applicable for visitors from the US and Europe.
Pre-travel permission being required in such context is a de facto visa requirement. It is not an antisemitic conspiracy, despite what Mak wants people to believe.
About Magnifico, his Lord T-rump publicly called for a “Muslim ban” and then after inauguration in January 2021, he implemented his much-challenged “Muslim ban”. It was yet another example of Don the Con being a conman and incompetent at that. He even kissed the ring of the Saudis as President. What an ignorant, screeching, foolish loser that dude or those who support him but can’t get their facts straight about their Lord T-rump.
Cry harder g-u-r-a-clown.
Did people of any religion from the Obama-selected countries face the same restrictions?
Hint: Yes.
But sure… “Muslim” ban.
You probably still wear a mask.
Magnifico,
The only tears I would willfully shed — and would willfully shed for different reasons — are for inhumane people and for those subject to inhumanity from brutal actors. Your misanthropy is both pitiful and sad. Just saying, especially since your example doesn’t inspire confidence in the species not being deserving of a proverbial Darwin Award.
Sure clown. Funny how you’ve dropped the whole “Muslim Ban” thang in your reply now.
You know, since there never was one.
Don’t worry: I’ll let you have the last word.
I know how important that is to children…
From the government media enterprise, Trump wants to restore the Trump travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries:
https://www.voanews.com/amp/trump-wants-to-restore-travel-ban-on-some-muslim-majority-countries/7596142.html
Here’s Magnifico’s Lord in 2015:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=viDffWUjcBA
January 2017*, not January 2021. January 2021 is when it was eliminated. January 2025 is when Don the Con is hoping to be in position to put it back in place.
@Magnifico
You are so right… I always cringe when I see that fool, GUWonder post anything since I know it will be nothing but a hollow, libtard diatribe. TRULY, what a clown!