Malaysia has maintained its decades-old policy banning entry to Israeli nationals, a stance reaffirmed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on July 22-23, 2026, despite criticism from eight US Democratic Congressmen [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The Congressmen urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider suspending US military aid and training to Malaysia over the ban [1, 2, 3, 5].
Anwar stressed the ban targets Israeli nationals as government representatives due to Israel’s actions in Palestine and Gaza, and is not directed against Jews. He called the US lawmakers' criticism "totally absurd" and said the policy does not violate international law [1, 3]. He said, "How can elected representatives in that country (the US) remain silent over the killing of children, civilians and women, the destruction of homes and the occupation of land?" [5].
The prime minister also said that the Israeli entry ban should not affect Malaysia-US bilateral relations and vowed to uphold the government’s decision despite any threats. "That will not deter us," he said [2, 4, 5]. On July 23, Malaysia ordered a dual US-Israeli citizen to leave after immigration checks revealed Israeli citizenship [5].
Alongside the entry ban issue, Malaysia is continuing negotiations with the United States over a 10% tariff imposed under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974, related to forced labour allegations affecting Malaysia and other ASEAN countries including Cambodia and Indonesia [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. Former minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz initially led the talks, which are now headed by Johari Abdul Ghani, Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry [6, 7, 8, 9, 10].
Prime Minister Anwar acknowledged Malaysia accepts the relatively low 10% tariff for now but warned concerns would be raised if talks do not produce satisfactory outcomes. "For now, we accept the announced tariff. However, at the very least, we are relieved for now because the tariff is relatively low compared with many other countries," he said [7].
The latest confirmation came on August 6, 2026, that Malaysia will maintain the Israeli nationals entry ban while continuing negotiations with the US over the tariffs [1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 5, 10].
