The Maldives will ban Israelis from the luxury tourist hot spot, said the office of the president, announcing a national rally in “solidarity with Palestine”, AFP reports.

President Mohamed Muizzu has “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports,” a spokesperson for his office said in a statement, without giving details of when the new law would take effect.

Muizzu also announced a national fundraising campaign called “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine”.

The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and moved to restore relations in 2010. However, normalisation attempts were scuttled following the toppling of President Mohamed Nasheed in February 2012.

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