Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momin clarified that there was no change in the country’s policy towards Israel after Bangladesh issued a new passport where the words “except for Israel”, which was there in previously issued passports,  were removed. 

Bangladesh doesn’t recognize Israel and has no diplomatic relations with it. In the newly issued passport, the line "This passport is valid for all countries except Israel" was changed to “This is passport is valid for all countries.” However, the change gave an impression that Bangladesh had dropped the travel ban on its citizens to Israel. 

However, a tweet by a senior official of the Israeli foreign ministry only added to the confusion. 

“Great news! Bangladesh has removed the travel ban to Israel. This is a welcome step and I call on the Bangladeshi government to move forward and establish diplomatic ties with Israel so both our peoples could benefit and prosper," Gilad Cohen, the deputy director-general for Asia and the Pacific at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on Twitter.  

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Momen clarified that dropping two words from the passport did not mean a change in its foreign policy. He clarified that change in the passport was done to match international standards. 

Major General Md Ayub Chowdhury,  who is the director-general of the Department of Immigration and Passport, said the passport is just a national identity card for citizens and doesn’t represent the country’s foreign policy. 

(SAM)