Israeli stamp in passport - hassles in KL?

Hi hoping someone on here can help....

We are hoping to go overland from Sinai to Jordan (Petra) via Eilat in Israel. This will mean an Israeli stamp in our passports.

Someone mentioned that this could cause hassles when we land in KL.... we will be visiting friends over there for 3 days at the end of our trip to Egypt/Jordan.

Is this information accurate? Should we try to avoid Israel?

Thanks for any information!

I should mention that we are all Australian citizens (my hubby and kids were born there) but I was born in Sri Lanka and have been questioned extensively at KL airport even tho I am an Australian Citizen and travel on an Aussie passport.

Hence my concern...

When I went to Israel (back in 1993 or so), you used to be able to get your Israeli visa stamped onto a piece of paper rather than into your actual passport. This was then removed when you left the country. You could try asking on the Middle East branch whether you can still do this.

Just ask at Israel immigration not to place a stamp into your passport. They will place on a piece of paper, which then you get rid off.

#3 are you sure they are Israelis? Isrealis are not allowed in Malaysia without special permission. Immigration says :
"For national of Israel, visas are required and permission must be granted from Ministry Of Home Affairs."

This has been discussed in the past and general thought is "no problem" for those who have visited Israel previously.

Perhaps they have dual citzenship...and two passports....

You could take the Nuweiba > Aqaba ferry and avoid the dreaded stamp.

Good advise from USA travel advisory on Malaysia on above matter on dual nationality:

If you have Israeli entry or exit stamps in your U.S. passport, you should not encounter difficulty at Malaysian Immigration. However, U.S.-Israeli dual nationals have been denied entry after presenting their Israeli passports to show exit stamps from their last destination. Therefore, it is important that U.S.-Israeli dual nationals use their U.S. passports to depart the last country on their itinerary prior to arriving in Malaysia.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_960.html

You should have no problems as you are Australian citizens.
It would be diffrent if you carried Israeli passports.
That said, you don't need a visa to enter Malaysia for 3 months.

[http://www.imi.gov.my/index.php/en/visa/visa-requirement-by-country]

Thanks for all your replies... really appreciate you taking the trouble to respond.

We will try to take the ferry - if this doesn't work out and we have to go overland we'll just hope that there is no need for us to go to a muslim country in the next 3 years... which is when our passports expire.

We've been to KL numerous times and yes you're right we haven't needed a visa so I guess that means they don't look too closely at the stamps ... duh!

However, the front page is looked at pretty thoroughly - hence the hassle they give me for having been born in Sri Lanka. Very annoying.

Thanks once again!

We will try to take the ferry - if this doesn't work out and we have to go overland we'll just hope that there is no need for us to go to a muslim country in the next 3 years... which is when our passports expire.

Syria used to be the most full on country about this rule. I heard stories of travellers being kicked out of the country over things like having Israeli stamps in their youth hostel books (or something along those lines). I also remember a lot of odd people coming up to us and trying to get us to stay we had been in Israel. The travellers code word for Israel was 'Disneyland' at that time as you never knew who was listening in. If that sounds OTT, Syria really was a very odd place back then (early 90s). I don't know if this is still the case.

We entered Israel over the river from Jordan and the officials at that entry point were quite happy to stamp our visa on a piece of paper. Everyone was doing the same thing so it wasn't out of ordinary at all. We then entered Egypt overland from Eilat and had no issue there.

Edited by: empressnasigoreng