Bangladesh has once again begun inscribing passports with the phrase “valid for all countries except Israel,” Agence France-Presse reported earlier this week.
Nilima Afroze, a deputy secretary at the home ministry, told Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency on Sunday that authorities had “issued a directive last week” to restore the ban explictly.
“The director general of the department of immigration and passport was asked to take necessary measures to implement this change,” Afroze told local media site The Daily Star.
The phrase, which works to ban Bangladeshi nationals from visiting Israel, was removed from the passport in 2021 but was reportedly restored to show the government’s continued disapproval of the Jewish state.
Hopes of diplomatic ties
Gilad Cohen, the former deputy director-general for Asia and the Pacific with the Foreign Ministry and now current ambassador to Japan, said the removal was a “Welcome step” and encouraged the country to establish ties - an invitation Bangladesh didn’t accept.
Great news! #Bangladesh has removed travel ban to Israel. This is a welcome step & I call on the Bangladeshi government to move forward and establish diplomatic ties with #Israel so both our peoples could benefit & prosper.@IsraelMFA #IsraelLooksEast https://t.co/LbOLbm9dfG
— Gilad Cohen ️ (@GiladCohen_) May 22, 2021
"No one from Bangladesh can visit Israel" and if anyone does, "legal action will be taken against that person," Bangladesh's former foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said at the time.
"A passport is just an identity and it doesn’t reflect the foreign policy of a country. The foreign policy of Bangladesh remains the same as it was during Bangabandhu’s (founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) time. We don’t recognize Israel," the minister said.
While travel is banned to Israel from the Bangladeshi side, nationals can still visit Israel after obtaining the relevant visa.
Dhaka claims to support "the two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict in light of the UN resolutions recognizing pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine," according to DW News, but has refused to acknowledge Israel until an independent Palestinian state is established.
The inscription also comes as over 100,000 people gathered in Dhaka to protest Israel's ongoing war against Hamas - a war which Hamas repeatedly claimed has taken a significant toll on Palestinian civilian lives.