Dropping ‘except Israel’ from passports unfortunate: Ex-foreign minister

Dropping the clause “except Israel” from the e-passport of Bangladesh was unfortunate, remarked former foreign minister AK Abdul Momen Friday.

He said while addressing as the chief guest at a shadow parliament on what could be done to prevent Israel aggression on Palestine. Debate for Democracy organised this at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) in the capital.

Sylhet-1 constituency MP, AK Abdul Momen said the clause “except Israel” was dropped from the e-passport without consulting him though he was the foreign minister at that time.

“I was told that a German firm did that to elevate the quality of the passport and to cut costs,” he added.

Mentioning that the ongoing crisis could be resolved through creation of two separate states - Palestine and Israel, Abdul Momen said, “Since most of the leaders of the Muslim world are not democratically elected, the Arab world is not able to play a strong role on the Palestine issue. But the government of Bangladesh is elected by the people.”

Debate for Democracy chairman Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury presided over the shadow parliament.

The State University of Bangladesh (SUB) team won the debate competition beating Govt. Nazrul College.

Professor Abu Muhammad Rais, journalist Jhumur Bari, AKM Moinuddin, Ekramul Haque, and Masud Karim were the judges in the competition.