Manama: A society that opposes ties with Israel has urged the Shura Council (upper house) to endorse a bill that outlaws all forms of contact with Israelis.
The bill was passed last week by the Council of Representatives (the lower house), but needs in the secondary approval stage to be ratified by the 40-member Shura where liberal lawmakers are likely to stall it.
The bill laid out a jail for up to five years for any Bahraini charged with having contacts at any level or under any form with Israelis. The government, however, said the lower house’s move was an intrusion on its prerogatives.
"We call upon all civil society forces to open up channels with the members of the Shura Council to pass the bill. NGOs, political associations, the General Federation for Bahrain Trade Unions and women's societies should lobby the Shura members, through statements, speeches or direct contact, into approving the bill," Abdullah Abdulmalik, the head of the Bahraini Society for the Anti-Normalisation with the Zionist entity, said.
"We will take the lead by addressing the Chairman of the Shura Council to explain the position of our society and that of the Bahraini people on the issue of normalisation," he said.
All political societies represented in the lower house should be thanked for their stance on contacts with the "Zionist entity", the activist said.
"The MPs reflected the deep commitment of our people to banning normalization with the usurping Zionists who have been relentlessly killing Arabs in Palestine. The Shura Council should adopt an equally positive step and refuse all frivolous and fictitious arguments and pass the bill. This is a really historic moment and the Shura Council should live up to the moment,” he said.
Bahrain, like most Arab countries, has no diplomatic relations with Israel and has repeatedly insisted that it was adhering to the Arab League condition to offer diplomatic recognition of Tel Aviv in response to the recognition of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders and an agreed settlement of the Palestinian refugees.
Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa caused a stir in the lower house after he met then Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni in October 2007 on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly.
Last year, Shaikh Khalid called for the formation of a regional forum that brings together all Arab states, Turkey, Iran and Israel. The proposal was promoted by the minister as the best way to address crises in the Middle East for the next 200 years, a statement that was wholeheartedly supported by several liberals in Bahrain and a host of nations, but vehemently rejected by conservative MPs in Bahrain and Iran.
In early July, two Bahraini officials were on a small Jordanian plane that landed in Israel to collect Bahraini Islamist activists who were seized by Israel from a ship heading towards under siege Gaza to provide assistance. The two officials did not get off the plane and had no contact with the Israelis, but several MPs said that their presence there signaled a step towards normalization of ties with Israel. The rescued activists however thanked the Bahraini authorities publicly for their support.
In July, Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said that Arabs should put their initiatives and views directly across to the Israeli people by talking to their media.
