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Bangladesh and Israel do not have diplomatic relations. Bangladesh has stated that it will not recognize Israel until there is an independent Palestinian state. [1] Some reports have alleged that Bangladesh and Israel maintain some trade relations indirectly and sometimes secretly, although the Bangladesh government denies these allegations.
Bangladesh is one of 28 UN member states that do not recognize the state of Israel. It is one of several countries that officially bans its citizens from traveling to Israel and does not accept Israeli passports. [2] [3] [4] In November 2003, Bangladeshi journalist Salah Choudhury was arrested for attempting to fly to Tel Aviv, arraigned for "sedition, treason, and blasphemy", and sentenced to a seven-year prison term. [5] [6] Bangladesh officially supports a sovereign Palestinian state and "an end to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine". [3]
In a September 2011 statement published in The Jerusalem Post , an Israeli government spokesperson said, "We have no conflict with Bangladesh. We want dialogue. We want people-to-people relations. We welcome the religious-minded people of Bangladesh to visit the holy land of Jerusalem". [7] Israel fruitlessly "sought a relationship with Bangladesh" after they had established "full diplomatic relations with China and India in 1992". [8] Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in 2014, "We have been continuing our support to the Palestinians and occupation of their land by the Israelis is never acceptable". [9]
In late May 2021, Bangladesh removed "except Israel" from their passport to meet the "international standard" [10] [11] from an earlier version which said "This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel". The removal was only from their e-passport and removal from machine readable passports (MRP) is on process. [10] [12] Though the term was removed from the passport, Bangladesh did not remove the ban on traveling to Israel with Bangladeshi passport. [13]
Bangladesh has expressed its solidarity with the Palestinian people during the 2023 Israel-Hamas War. [14]
Bangladesh maintains a ban on trade with Israel even though both countries are members of the World Trade Organization. [8] In 2014, it was found from the official statistics of the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau that Bangladesh had exported a small amount of merchandise goods worth about US$2,577 to Israel in 2013–14 fiscal year. [15] In recent years however, it is found that Bangladeshi products are exported to Israel through the United States, the European Union or other third countries. [16]
Israel imported ready-made garments, apparel and textile products from Bangladesh worth $333.74 million in the fiscal year 2022. Most imported Bangladeshi goods came via Turkey, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. [17] Ready-made garments brokerage based in Singapore made payments to Bangladeshi banks from Singapore and Turkey as there is no direct diplomatic and economic relationship between both countries. [18]
Indian company Adani Group’s planned take-over of the Port of Haifa would allow Muslim countries, including Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia, to ship products to and from Haifa port despite not having a direct diplomatic relationship. [19]
The economic potential of the two countries is immense, said Joseph Rozen, the former director for Asia and Euro-Asia affairs in the Israeli National Security Council. [20] Israel needs goods and services that Bangladesh can offer directly instead of obtaining the same Bangladeshi goods via Singapore and Turkey. [21]
In February 2021, an Al-Jazeera investigation report titled " All the Prime Minister's Men " alleged that Bangladeshi military intelligence secretly bought Israeli-made mobile phone surveillance and manipulation equipment that can be used to simultaneously monitor hundreds of people. [22] The report also claimed that some Bangladeshi military officers were trained by Israeli tech experts at a warehouse in Hungary. [23] Bangladesh Army denied these allegations in an official statement. [24]
Bangladesh’s security agency, Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, commonly known as DGFI, purchased mass surveillance software, spyware and cyber monitoring products from Israeli companies worth $12 million. [25] Bangladeshi Government’s security agents were trained in Hungary and Thailand. [18] [26] Photos appeared online showing DGFI agents posing for photos with Israeli trainers. [27]
Israel was one of the first nations to recognize the independent Bangladesh in February 1972. [28] Both the Israeli Government and the Israeli general public supported the aspirations of the Bengali people during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. After the independence of Bangladesh, the newly formed country was quickly recognized by Israel on 7 February 1972. [28] However the Government of Bangladesh officially rejected the Israeli recognition. [7] [29] On behalf of the Bangladeshi Government, the then Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, issued a letter saying this recognition was not acceptable. [7]
In the immediate aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon War, Bangladesh offered to send battalions of its infantrymen to help with the UN peacekeeping force, but Israel rejected it stating that Bangladesh does not recognize Israel. [30] Although Israel rejected the country's participation, Bangladesh was one of first countries whose troops reached the shores of south Lebanon. Whereas western nations, such as the original leader and top contributor to Lebanon, France, delayed their deployment. As of May 2015, Bangladesh has 326 peacekeepers participating in UNIFIL in Lebanon. [31]
In May 2016, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina alleged that opposition parties BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh have joined with Israeli national intelligence agency Mossad to overthrow her government through a coup after it had been reported that Aslam Chowdhury, the joint secretary general of BNP met the Israeli politician Mendi N. Safadi during a visit to India. [32] Aslam claimed that the meeting was accidental. [33]
On 7 June 2016, Bangladeshi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan alleged that the main opposition party BNP has link to the recent fundamentalists attacks in Bangladesh and these attacks are part of a wider conspiracy that also involved Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel. [34] Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman referred to the allegations as "utter drivel." [34]
Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry swiftly condemned the loss of innocent civilian lives from both sides and expressed its endorsement of a two-state solution to the conflict. [35] Emphasizing that the escalation of conflict benefits no party, Government of Bangladesh called on both sides to exercise maximum restraint and implement an immediate ceasefire to prevent further casualties. [36] Bangladesh has long advocated for a two-state solution, envisioning Palestine and Israel coexisting as independent states in adherence to UN Resolutions 242 and 338, with the aim of establishing enduring peace and stability in the region. Information Minister, Hasan Mahmud, firmly stated the country's opposition to wars and killings, highlighting the unacceptable nature of holding civilians hostage during conflicts, irrespective of the location or circumstances. He specifically denounced the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, including the cutoff of essential resources, as an unjustifiable act in the name of war. [37]
On November 17, Bangladesh, along with four other nations, including South Africa, jointly called for an International Criminal Court investigation into Israel's indiscriminate war on the Gaza Strip. [38]
The Palestinian National Authority, commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine, is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over West Bank areas "A" and "B" as a consequence of the 1993–1995 Oslo Accords. The Palestinian Authority controlled the Gaza Strip prior to the Palestinian elections of 2006 and the subsequent Gaza conflict between the Fatah and Hamas parties, when it lost control to Hamas; the PA continues to claim the Gaza Strip, although Hamas exercises de facto control. Since January 2013, the Palestinian Authority has used the name "State of Palestine" on official documents, although the United Nations continues to recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the "representative of the Palestinian people".
Foreign relations of Israel refers to diplomatic and trade relations between Israel and other countries around the world. Israel has diplomatic ties with 164 of the other 192 UN member states as of December 2020. Israel is a member of the United Nations (UN) and a number of other international organisations. Israel maintains full diplomatic relations with two of its Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan, after signing peace treaties in 1979 and 1994 respectively. In 2020, Israel signed agreements establishing diplomatic relations with four Arab League countries, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco. As of 2021, Israel had formal diplomatic relations with 168 other countries, while twenty-eight UN member states have either never established, or have broken off diplomatic relations with Israel.
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. It comprises two disconnected regions – the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It shares borders with Israel to the north, west, and south, Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. Palestine's combined land area is 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem while Rafah is currently its largest city and Ramallah serves as its administrative center. The official language is Arabic. The majority of Palestinians practice Islam while Christianity also has a significant presence.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War of 1967. It previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, occupation of the Palestinian territories was split between Egypt and Jordan, with the former having occupied the Gaza Strip and the latter having annexed the West Bank; the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were under the sovereignty of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The first conjoined usage of the terms "occupied" and "territories" with regard to Israel was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and called for: "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles: ... Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict ... Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
Israel–New Zealand relations are the foreign relations between the State of Israel and New Zealand. While Israel has an embassy in Wellington, New Zealand's embassy in Ankara, Turkey is accredited to Israel. Diplomatic relations between the two countries date back to January 1949. New Zealand has exported a mixture of agricultural and manufactured goods to Israel. In return, Israel has exported a range of manufactured goods to New Zealand. Bilateral relations between the two countries have been complicated by issues such as the 2004 Israel–New Zealand passport scandal, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The State of Israel and the Republic of Turkey formally established diplomatic relations in March 1949. Less than a year after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Turkey recognized Israeli sovereignty, making it the world's first Muslim-majority country to do so. Both countries gave high priority to bilateral cooperation in the areas of diplomacy and military/strategic ties, while sharing concerns with respect to the regional instabilities in the Middle East. In recent decades, particularly under Turkey's Erdoğan administration, the two countries' relationship with each other has deteriorated considerably. However, diplomatic ties were reinstated after a successful normalization initiative in mid-2022.
The Bangladeshi passport is an ICAO compliant, machine-readable and biometric e-passport issued for the purpose of travel to foreign countries by the passport holder. Bangladesh is the first country in South Asia to issue e-passports for all eligible citizens. The passport booklet is manufactured, printed and issued by the Department of Immigration & Passports of the Ministry of Home Affairs. This electronic microprocessor chip embedded e-passport has forty-one different security features, including holographic images embossed in thin-film laminate, which change colour under light and appear to move. Demographic and biometric information of the e-passport holder are stored on the chip inside the e-passport. This information includes the fingerprints of all ten fingers of the passport holder; the iris scan of both eyes; a color photograph of the face of the bearer; their digital signature; etc. Depending on the age of the applicant, the e-passport is valid for either five years or ten years and it is distributed by the Government of The People's Republic of Bangladesh, or by any of its overseas diplomatic missions, to eligible Bangladeshi nationals who are citizens by birth, by descent or through naturalization.
Israel–United Kingdom relations, or Anglo-Israeli relations, are the diplomatic and commercial ties between the United Kingdom and Israel. The British embassy to Israel is located in Tel Aviv. The UK has an honorary consul in Eilat and a non-accredited consulate-general in Jerusalem, that represents the United Kingdom in that city and the Palestinian territories. Israel has three representative offices in the United Kingdom: an Embassy located in London and consulates in Cardiff and Glasgow.
Ireland–Israel relations are foreign relations between Ireland and Israel.
Chile–Israel relations refers to the bilateral and diplomatic ties between Chile and Israel. Chile recognized Israel's independence in February 1949. Both countries established diplomatic relation on 16 May 1950, with Israel sending their first ambassador on that date and Chile sending their first ambassador on 16 June 1952. Chile has an embassy in Tel Aviv. Israel has an embassy in Santiago.
Israel and Indonesia have no formal diplomatic ties, although they maintain quiet trade, tourism and security contacts. In 2012, Indonesia spoke of upgrading relations with Israel and opening a consulate in Ramallah, but this agreement was never implemented.
Bilateral relations between Australia and Israel, were established in 1949. Australia has an embassy in Tel Aviv and Israel has an embassy in Canberra.
China–Palestine relations, also referred to as Sino–Palestinian relations, encompass the long bilateral relationship between China and Palestine dating back from the early years of the Cold War.
International relations between Argentina and Israel, have existed for decades. Both countries established diplomatic relations on 31 May 1949.
The State of Israel was formally established by the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948, and was admitted to the United Nations (UN) as a full member state on 11 May 1949. As of December 2020, it has received diplomatic recognition from 165 of the 193 total UN member states, and also maintains bilateral ties with all of the Permanent Five. 28 member states have either never recognized Israel or have withdrawn their recognition; others have severed diplomatic relations without explicitly withdrawing their recognition. Additionally, many non-recognizing countries have challenged Israel's existence—predominantly those in the Muslim world—due to significant animosity stemming from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Israel–Malaysia relations refers to the commercial and cultural ties between Israel and Malaysia. The two countries currently maintain no formal diplomatic relations. Although Malaysia officially maintains an outwardly hostile position towards Israel, commercial relations between the two countries do exist, albeit very limited. Malaysian passports bear the inscription: "This passport is valid for all countries except Israel". Israeli Passport holders are forbidden to enter Malaysia without written permission from the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs. The recognition of Israel is a politically delicate issue for the Malaysian government.
Mohammad Ibrahim Shtayyeh is a Palestinian politician, academic, and economist who served as Prime Minister of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority from 2019 to 2024. On 26 February 2024, he and his government announced their resignation, remaining in office in a demissionary capacity until a new government was formed on March 31, 2024.
Bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Palestine are close and considered to be cordial. Bangladesh has been a consistent supporter of the Palestinians right to an independent state, and has no diplomatic relations with Israel. Furthermore, Bangladesh offers scholarships to young Palestinians, and the two countries co-operate on military affairs.
On December 6, 2017, the United States of America officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital city of the State of Israel. American president Donald Trump, who signed the presidential proclamation, also ordered the relocation of the American diplomatic mission to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, constituting what is now the Embassy of the United States in Jerusalem, which was established on the grounds of the former Consulate General of the United States in Jerusalem. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision and praised the announcement by the Trump administration. On December 8, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson clarified that Trump's statement "did not indicate any final status for Jerusalem" and "was very clear that the final status, including the borders, would be left to the two parties to negotiate and decide" in reference to the recognition's impact on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.