holy shit the difference in comments between here and reddit’s world news on the same post is insane. Everyone there is a zionist.
What’s the vibe in there? Cause I don’t like the idea of punishing regular civilians for the government’s actions, so I’m not a fan of this decision. But I’m not gonna come in here and say something like “omg why though, Israel’s the victim!!!1”
Israel doesn’t have regular citizens because of their national draft. Just complicit people, settlers, and people who don’t have to serve because Israel is racist.
This is good from an economic POV too. Israeli tourists are generally chesp and racist. Just ask India.
Nearly 11,000 Israelis visited Maldives last year, which was 0.6% of the total tourist arrivals.
Very nice. It’s not just a symbolic boycot
As the Maldives is a tourist resort 0.6% of the most major income is pretty big
https://www.budgetyourtrip.com/maldives
You should plan to spend around** $299 (MVR4,623) per day on your vacation in the Maldives.** This is the average daily price based on the expenses of other visitors
Even assuming that every tourist stays one single day that would be 3.3 million dollars. And I’d wager most tourists stay longer than that
So, admittedly, $3.3 Million is low-balling it, and that the real figure is probably something like $20 Million, assuming that each tourist stays ~1 week and spends $299/day as you have quoted.
But these numbers don’t mean anything in a vacuum. More context is needed to understand the actual impact of this decision.
The Maldives have a GDP of $6.55 Billion. Assuming that this costs them $20 Million in tourism revenue, that’s only a 0.3% drop in GDP. The annual fluctuation in GDP is ±9%. The impact of banning Israeli tourists is less than a rounding error on the Economy of the Maldives.
This is ubelievably dumb. Israel is not even a democracy. Yes, they may have some democratic laws, but they are also 70+ years under the state of emergency. There isn’t free press. Israelis are getting locked up for protesting for peace, for refusing to fight in a apartheid war, even for liking facebook comments supporting Palestine. Aplying collective punishment / collective responsibility under such circumstances (as generally under any circumstances) not only doesn’t support the plight of palestinian refugees, it goes against it!
I understand their (Maledives) motivation, but this is not the way. You can’t punish all Palestinians for the crimes of the few, nor can you punish all Israelies for the crimes of the many.
Go ahead and downvote me.
Thank you! I don’t think I’ve been this proud for getting down voted lately. And I don’t blame you - I hope your motivation is same as mine - to end the tragedy that is currently happening in Gaza ASAP. IMO - You just aren’t terribly adult about it, but I trust that you will get there <3
I wasn’t going to downvote until I saw the attempt at reverse psychology. Just make your point, don’t try to manipulate the results.
wp:Human rights in the Maldives
The constitution declares Islam as the state religion of the Maldives and states that all Maldivian nationals are required to be Sunni Muslims.[13] It is illegal in the country to proselytize any religion other than Islam, and advocate for secularism or the separation of church and state. Apostasy and atheism are also outlawed and those who identify as or accused of being apostates or atheists are punishable by death by Maldivian law (though unenforced) and are often subject to vigilante violence or attacks with little or no consequences for perpetrators by the authorities.
…
Defamation and Speech “contrary to the tenets of Islam” is illegal.
…
As the state partially practices Sharia law in some matters, homosexuality is illegal. The punishment for men is nine months to one year imprisonment, or 10 to 30 lashes. The punishment for women is nine months to one year of house arrest.[3]
This is Lemmy: the Shariah law as practiced by the Maldives doesn’t apply here,
nor did the Maldives fight a war for its very existence on the first day of its independence.
