Tag: El Al

Government denies Israeli jet landed in Addu

The government has denied reports in the media that a private Israeli jet carrying tourists to Shangri-la Villigilli Resort landed in Addu City this week.

President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza dismissed the claim today as “completely false.”

“The government’s stand is that [the claim] is a lie,” he asserted, suggesting that the rumours originated from staff at the airport.

Two officials at the Addu International Airport Company Ltd (AIACL) told Minivan News that the private jet departed yesterday after spending four days at Gan International Airport.

An airport official told Minivan News on condition of anonymity that the Gulfstream Aerospace G200 flight (4X-CLL) arrived on Sunday with tourists from the Jewish state, and had been parked at the Gan Airport for four days prior to its departure in the morning yesterday.

Banning Israeli flights to the Maldives was among five demands made at a ‘mega-protest’ on December 23, organised by a coalition of eight parties and religious NGOs to ‘Defend Islam’ against the allegedly liberal policies of former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration.

Following the change of government on February 7, the ruling coalition-dominated parliament passed a resolution on April 25 preventing Israeli national airline El Al from operating scheduled flights to the Maldives.

El Al had applied to the Ministry of Civil Aviation in May 2011 requesting permission to fly to the country starting in December 2011, prompting the religious conservative Adhaalath Party to warn of a potential terrorist attack “due to the commencement of Zionist Israel’s flight operations to Maldives.”

Adhaalath severed its coalition agreement with the then-ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in September, soon after the Transport Ministry granted a licence to El Al to begin operations to Maldives.

Adhaalath Party President Sheikh Imran Abdulla and Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed were not responding at time of press.

“First Israeli flight”

Speaking to Minivan News, an operations officer at Gan International Airport explained that a large number of private jets routinely fly to Addu City with “rich tourists.” The official stressed that authorisation for the flight to land in the Maldives would have been granted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Officials from the department were unavailable for comment at the time of press.

Community news site Addu Online meanwhile reported that according to an AIACL official, the private jet arrived on Sunday from Israel after transiting in another country.

The community website claimed that jet was operating under a license granted to the Israeli Amateur Radio Club. According to Addu Online, the private jet was the first flight from Israel to land at the Gan airport.

Speaking to Minivan News in April last year, former Transport Minister Adhil Saleem defended the MDP government’s decision to authorise Israeli flights, arguing that it would create opportunities for both Israeli tourists to visit the country as well as facilitate pilgrimages for Maldivians to the al-Aqsa mosques in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam.

“Some Maldivians see Israel as controversial over the issue of Palestine. Yet Palestine accepts Israel as a state, benchmarking the point that I don’t see why we should not allow these flights.”

Saleem said that the Maldives already played host to a number of Israeli tourists at its resorts and that authorising Israeli airlines would allow for a greater influx of guests to the country’s tourism industry.

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National Security Committee to forward resolution prohibiting Israeli flight operations

The parliament’s National Security Committee (NSC) has today decided to forward a resolution to the parliament to prohibit operations of Israel’s El Al airline to the Maldives.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP for the Madaveli constituency Mohamed Nazim, also a member of the NSC, today confirmed the decision to Minivan News.

According to Nazim the resolution will be forwarded to parliament Speaker Abdulla Shahid today.

”The speaker will then decided when to present it to the parliament’s floor to ask for a vote,” Nazim said. ”The decision was made following a request made by the Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari to pass a resolution to prohibit the flight operations to the Maldives.”

In May Israel’s national carrier El Al formally applied to the Ministry of Transport to begin flying to the Maldives from December.

President Mohamed Nasheed’s Press Secretary, Mohamed Zuhair, said at the time that he believed the government was inclined to grant permission to the airline.

Later in April religious party Adhaalath resolved to terminate the coalition agreement with MDP in the event that permission was granted.

Transport Minister Adil Saleem previously said the ministry was processing a license for El Al subsidiary airline Sun d’Or International Airlines, and claimed the partnership would create opportunities for Israeli tourists to visit the country while also facilitating pilgrimages for Maldivians to mosques around Jerusalem and other parts of the country.

In September the Adhaalath Party’s council voted to break the coalition agreement to protest the current government’s religious policy, citing the Israeli flight issue as a component therein.

This week Minister of Islamic Affairs Dr. Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari requested the NSC to endorse a resolution forbidding the government to establish ties with Israel.

Expressing his views on the issue, Dr. Bari told the MPs he “personally does not support the Israel airline to operate in the Maldives”.

Speaking to Minivan News, Dr. Bari said that he made the request because he believes “Israel has committed several human rights violations”.

Dr. Bari noted that Maldives should not stand with Israel as it commits atrocities against the Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine.

“Maldives cut off ties with Libyan President Muammar Gadaffi’s government when he was killing, violating fundamental rights of his people. Similarly, Maldives should follow the same standard by isolating Israel for the atrocities committed against Muslims,” Dr.Bari said.

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Tourism arrivals would drop “10-36 percent” if government provokes terrorist attack, warns Adhaalath

The religious Adhaalath Party has sent a letter to parliament warning that a terrorist attack in the Maldives would reduce tourist arrivals “by 10-36 percent for the next 12 months.”

The letter was sent to parliament’s national security committee which has begun debating whether to permit Israeli flights to land in the Maldives.

“If there is a terrorist attack in the Maldives due to the commencement of Zionist Israel’s flight operations to Maldives, the tourist arrival rates for the next 12 months will decline by 10-36 percent,” Adhaalath predicted in the letter, adding that the tourism industry would face a loss of US$200 million to US$1 billion. The party did not elaborate on how it reached the figures.

Adhaalath severed its coalition agreement with the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) in September, soon after the Transport Ministry granted a licence to Israeli flag carrier El Al to begin operations to Maldives.

Since then, Adhaalath has been campaigning against the licence, stirring strong anti-Israeli sentiment.

In the letter forwarded to the national security committee, which has an MDP majority, Adhaalath alleged that the Israeli flights are “targeted by the terrorists” and said that terrorist “eyes” would turn on Maldives if the operations commence, posing “serious threats to the national security”.

MPs debated Adhaalath’s letter during Wednesday’s committee meeting and decided to summon the head of the Maldives security forces to examine the claims.

“We will discuss the concerns raised by the Adhaalath Party and consult security forces to determine whether action should be taken,” said committee head, MDP MP Ali Waheed.

MDP MP Mohamed Thoriq was meanwhile quoted in local media as calling for an investigation into all the allegations Adhaalath has made regarding the Maldives’ ties with Israel, claiming that as a 100 percent muslin country, the Maldives must “be prepared for any threats from Israel”.

Sun Online reported MDP MP Mohamed Nazim meanwhile suggested conducting research into whether Jewish arrivals to the Maldives in the past had caused any negative effect on the Islamic faith, while Independent MP Mohamed Zubair was quoted as claiming that Israeli flight operations would “bring no benefit to the Maldivian economy”.

Transport Minister Adhil Saleem observed that opponents of allowing Israel to fly to the Maldives “don’t seem to have an issue with Israeli tourists coming to the Maldives and spending their money.”

His mandate as Transport Minister was to increase air, sea and cargo transport to and from all countries, Saleem said, “and if there is no specific legal exemption for Israel, I cannot treat it any differently as that would mean I was corrupt.”

He would not comment on whether allowing El Al to fly to the Maldives posed a security risk, deferring to the defence forces. There were, he said, many Muslim Israelis and a number of Islamic holy sites in Israel, such as the Masjid-Al-Aqsa, and 500-800 Maldivians flew there each year.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population of Israel in 2010 was estimated at 1,573,000, 20 percent of the country’s total population and almost five times that of the Maldives.

El Al is notably the only commercial airline equipped with infrared counter-measures for defence against anti-aircraft missiles, according to the its Wikipedia entry. All flights are manned by armed sky marshals, the cockpit is protected by a two door ‘mantrap’, and the baggage hold is armoured to protect the passenger cabin from explosive devices.

The airline’s last reported security incident occurred in 2002 when a 23 year-old Israeli Arab was apprehended after attempting to break into the cockpit with a pocket knife. Earlier that same year a gunman killed two people and was shot dead at an El Al check in counter at Los Angeles International Airport.

The first El Al flight was due to arrive in the Maldives on December 13, however Saleem said the airline has so far yet to forward the scheduling to the Ministry.

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Israeli national carrier El Al requests permission to fly to Maldives

Israel’s national carrier El Al has formally applied to the Ministry of Civil Aviation to begin flying to the Maldives from December.

President Mohamed Nasheed’s Press Secretary, Mohamed Zuhair, said he believed the government was inclined to grant permission to the airline.

“Despite the reservations of the Adhaalath Party and other religious groups [in the Maldives], El Al flies to many Arab capitals and is even accessible to those people claiming to work against Israel, who seem to have no objections to it,” Zuhair observed.

He did acknowledge that permitting the airline to fly the Maldives represented “a political obstacle”, but suggested it was “one for the Adhaalath party to explain.”

“Maldivians have not been directly affected by any actions taken by Israel, and the Maldives is in fact involved in peace initiatives undertaken in the Middle East by the Maldivian government,” Zuhair said. “I don’t see the justification for not accepting an Israeli airline that is accepted by Arab states claiming to be victims of Israel.”

The religiously-conservative Adhaalath Party has declared it will terminate its coalition agreement with the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) if it allows an Israeli airline to fly to the Maldives.

In an earlier statement on the matter in April, the party claimed there “were reasons” why out of the 50 Islamic countries, 48 had declined permission for El Al to operate.

“It is because Israel is the biggest enemy of the whole Muslim community, a country that has stolen the holy lands of Muslims, a country that is committing violence against the people of Palestine and as Israeli flights are targets of terrorist organisations, it raises security concerns,” the party said.

An earlier request by the airline’s charter subsidiary Sun D’Or was denied after Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) revoked its license ruling that it was functionally indistinguishable from El Al.

The rebranding effort was an attempt by El Al to circumvent religious backlash from ultra-orthodox Israeli groups over operating flights on the Sabbath and religious holidays, which it claimed were leaving it unable to compete with other major carriers.

Strong anti-Israel sentiment persists in the Maldives. Visiting Israeli eye surgeons from the ‘Eyes from Zion’ NGO were in November met with protests and the burning of the Israeli flag in Male’s Republic Square. The Islamic Foundation NGO contested at the time that Israeli surgeons “have become notorious for illegally harvesting organs from non-Jews around the world.”

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Transport authorities look to complete Israeli airline deal

Transport officials have confirmed that a subsidiary of Israel’s flagship airline El Al is in the process of starting services to the Maldives later this year, despite some fervent anti-Israel sentiment in the country and recent administrative difficulties between the flight operator and its parent company.

Transport Minister Adil Saleem told Minivan News that relevant authorities were currently processing a license for Sun d’Or International Airlines to begin operating to the Maldives after talks began last year. He claimed such a move would create opportunities for both Israeli tourists to visit the country as well as facilitate pilgrimages for Maldivians to mosques around Jerusalem and other parts of the country.

Sun D’Or International, which is wholly owned by Israeli transport group El Al, was reported to have ceased operations from April 1 this year after the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) ruled that it relied on its parent company to administer and provide infrastructure to its operations – a situation it deemed “unsatisfactory”.

In a report for the Reuters news agency, despite reservations raised by the CAA on the manner the company was being run, the Israeli Transport Ministry claimed that the aircraft, maintained by El Al , were “completely safe” and any reservations about Sun D’Or International’s operations related solely to “administrative issues”. The report quoted ministry officials as saying that El Al could continue to use the Sun D’Or brand name commercially, but could not continue to operate the airline as an independent company.

A spokesperson for El Al was unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of press, but Adil Saleem claimed that to his knowledge, negotiations to begin services to the Maldives had not been affected so far by the Israeli CAA’s decision.

“I am not presently on top of the latest developments [with the company], but I believe we have almost completed the licence process for the services, which are expected to begin in October.

In recent months, the Maldives has seen a number of protests against Israel and its foreign policy along with claims by one former opposition party leader that the privatisation of Male’ International Airport would allow for Israeli bombers to go out of their way to refuel in the Maldives on their way to attack its neighbours in the Middle East. Saleem said he had taken such controversies on board.

“The [transport] department has gone through their procedures that it goes through with any airline planning to operate to the Maldives.  As Transport Minister I have looked at this like with any other airline,” he said. “Some Maldivians see Israel as controversial over the issue of Palestine. Yet Palestine accepts Israel as a state, benchmarking the point that I don’t see why we should not allow these flights.”

Saleem said that the Maldives already played host to a number of Israeli tourists at its resorts and that the airline would allow for a greater influx of guests to the country’s tourism industry.

The Transport Minister added that it had also become fashionable for some Muslims to travel to ancient mosques in Medina and Jerusalem, with the deal potentially allowing for local companies to provide pilgrimages to these sites.

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