Israel Imposes ‘Muslim Ban’ For Pilots & Crew In Wake Of FlyDubai Hijacking

After the Sept.30th FlyDubai attempted terror hijacking, Israel is enforcing what’s effectively a ‘Muslim ban’ on all pilots and cabin crew flying passengers to Israel. While the order does not specifically invoke religion, it targets and forbids pilots and crew who have nationalities of countries that don’t have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

Middle East Eye observes that “The directive targets nationality rather than explicitly naming religion, but effectively excludes Muslim pilots from those countries, alongside other affected crew members.”

“The restrictions cover 31 nationalities, including Algerian, Tunisian, Iranian and Pakistani citizens. They also affect French citizens who hold one of the listed nationalities,” the same report says.

This policy is already in effect, and some reports say that major carriers like Air France is complying – but at the same time it’s clear that some aren’t getting the memo:

Israel turned away an Ethiopian Airlines flight bound for Tel Aviv because of the nationality of one of its pilots.

In what appears to be a more rigorous enforcement of existing rules, a cargo jet was forced to turn around in mid-air on Monday, after being denied permission to land because one pilot was Indonesian.

One of the pilots was Indonesian and the cargo plane operator only submitted its personnel list to Israeli authorities after the plane took off, bound for Israel.

All of this comes after Israel’s Transport Ministry is under fire in the wake of the FlyDubai incident. It stands accused of lax enforcement of security procedures and laws on the books.

Air France agrees to enforce Israeli ban on French pilots with citizenship from mostly Arab or Muslim countries. https://t.co/wOOgszmwvQ

— شنشون (@humanprovince) October 11, 2026

The FlyDubai attacker should have been flagged, given he had already been banned from flying by the country of Oman over his extremist Islamist views.

He’s currently being interrogated in Dubai, and it is believed that he intended to crash hijacked Flydubai flight into the main terminal building at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport, in an effort to cause as many casualties as he could.