Bangladesh' Position on Israel remains unchanged

Responding to a controversy over the removal of the ban on travel to Israel on E-passports, the government on Sunday categorically said that Bangladesh has not deviated from its position on Israel and Bangladesh remains firm on its longstanding position in this regard.

In a press statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said that the attention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently been drawn to a twitter issued from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel welcoming the removal of the ban on travel to Israel E-passports being issued by Bangladesh.

The confusion appears to have emanated from the new booklets of E-passports which do not contain the observation ''all countries excepting Israel''.

''The removal of the observation has been done to maintain international standard of Bangladeshi e-passports and does not imply any change of Bangladesh’s foreign policy towards the Middle East,'' reads the statement.

''The ban on travel of Bangladeshi passport holders to Israel remains unchanged. The Government of Bangladesh has not deviated from its position on Israel and Bangladesh remains firm on its longstanding position in this regard.''

The Government of Bangladesh has condemned the recent atrocities inflicted upon the civilians by the occupation forces of Israel in the al-Aqsa mosque compound and in Gaza. 

Bangladesh reiterates its principled position concerning the two-State Solution of the Palestine-Israel conflict in light of the UN resolutions recognizing pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine.