The Committee on National Security Services or the 241 Committee of the People’s Majlis is racing against time to act swiftly and speed up the process of banning Israeli passports, with mounting pressure on the government to impose the ban on Israeli passports without dragging the bill further.

The decision was reached at Sunday’s meeting of the 241 Committee.

Earlier, the committee had decided to send letters to relevant authorities regarding the bill by the end of December and then review their responses.

The committee went on to decide to summon said authorities to the committee after reviewing their responses.

However, the committee later backtracked on the decision and on Sunday announced that they would expedite the process. The decision was made by the Committee Chair and MP for Eydhafushi constituency Ahmed Saleem.

The 241 Committee decided to summon relevant authorities for questioning starting Monday. The proposal was submitted by MP for Hulhudhoo constituency Mohamed Shahid. The committee chair noted that the change was important to expedite the work on the bill. The final date set for completing the committee work on the bill to ban entry of people with Israeli passports to the Maldives is February 2025.

A resolution calling to expedite the bill submitted to the People’s Majlis to ban entry of people with Israeli passports to the Maldives was rejected on Wednesday.

15 members voted in favor of accepting the resolution during Wednesday’s parliamentary sitting. 63 members voted to reject the resolution. The parliamentarians that voted against rejecting the resolution were 12 representing the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), MP for Velidhoo constituency Mohamed Abbas who is affiliated with MDA, independent MP for Addu Meedhoo constituency Abdul Rahman and MP for Mahibadhoo constituency presenting the main ruling People’s National Congress (PNC), Ahmed “Tom” Thoriq. Members of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu's PNC and a member of MNP voted to reject the resolution. Five other PNC lawmakers present in the chamber at the time abstained from the vote. The resolution was submitted to the parliament by MDP’s North Galolhu constituency lawmaker Mohamed “Kudoo” Ibrahim.

The resolution stated that the bill has been in the committee stage for more than four months, and since the government party has a full majority in the parliament, while the government is passing other bills through the parliament as they want when they want, even holding extraordinary sittings to pass some bills, it urged the government to push for the bill to be passed by the parliament as soon as possible. Many parliamentarians representing the government who spoke about the resolution spoke against accepting it.

The 241 Committee decided to extend the issue of the bill to ban Israeli passports until February 2025, during a committee meeting held on November 12.

A bill to amend the Immigration Act to ban entry with Israeli passports was submitted to the parliament on 29 May 2024. The bill was submitted by MP for South Galolhu constituency Meekail Naseem, in a bid to amend the Immigration Act, to ban the entry of tourists with Israeli passports into the Maldives.

While the bill to amend the Immigration Act to ban entry with Israeli passports was in parliament, PNC issued a statement on October 15 calling for the matter to be expedited.

The government announced its decision to amend the law to change the arrangement allowing Israelis to enter the Maldives on 2 June 2024.

After that, the bill to ban Israeli passports was accepted by the People’s Majlis and sent to the 241 Committee on June 10.

Due to the delay in the work on this bill, not only the opposition party MDP but also many members of the public have been criticizing the government and the PNC-affiliated majority in parliament.

Several have been saying that the Israeli passport issue has been prolonged in the current parliament assembly, which has been passing government-proposed issues at rocket speed, because the government does not want to do it.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing genocide against innocent Palestinian citizens by Israel, thousands are being martyred every day, with over 44,000 people killed so far. Many of the victims are children and women.