PROTEST AGAINST ISRAELI ATTACKS: Sri Lankan Muslims staging a demonstration denouncing Israel and its offensives against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in Colombo.
AFP/Colombo
Israeli holiday makers were evacuated from their Maldivian resort after one of them tore up an anti-Israeli placard equating the Nazi Swastika to the Israeli flag, officials said yesterday.
Some 30 Israeli surfers were moved out to safety from Thulusdhoo island, near the capital island Male, as residents of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim archipelago protested the pulling down of anti-Israeli
placards.
Tensions rose after an Israeli man tore down the placard daubed with a Swastika which had been pinned to a coconut tree.
Minister at the President’s Office, Mohamed Shareef, said they evacuated the tourists for their own safety.
“There could have been an ugly incident and that is why the tourists were evacuated from the resort,” Shareef told AFP by phone.
He said Israelis were not banned from entering the archipelago, better known for its upmarket tourism, but the Maldives was bitter with Israel over the violence.
“We have not banned them, but Israeli tourist must remember that they are visiting a 100% Muslim country,” Shareef said. “We unequivocally and unconditionally support the Palestinian cause.”
He said the Maldives had also put in place measures to express their opposition to Israel.
The Maldives this week began implementing a ban on Israeli-made goods and also abrogated three co-operation agreements on health, tourism and
education.
“Imports from Israel are small, but we are banning imports as a token measure,” Shareef said, adding that the three bilateral agreements entered into by a previous administration in 2009 had largely remained on paper.
The Maldives, which is known for pristine beaches and secluded coral islands popular with honeymooners, attracted more than 1mn tourists last year of which less than 1% came from Israel.
Maldivians have also begun collecting money to help Palestinians in Gaza where more than three weeks of Israeli attacks have killed nearly 1,300 people.
Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon said the Maldives would join other Arab nations in co-sponsoring a resolution at this week’s special session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) calling for the protection of an independent Palestinian state and the extension of humanitarian aid.
The agreements to be annulled involve co-operation in areas of health, culture and education, and tourism.
However, the Maldivian government stopped short of announcing the severing of
diplomatic ties.
There are few tourists arriving in the Maldives from Israel and there were no Israeli
investments in the country.
Israeli tourists - numbering 2,569 in 2013 - constituted 0.3% of total tourist arrivals. In June 2014, some 254 Israeli tourists visited the Maldives, a 72% increase from 12 months earlier, according to data from the tourism ministry.
