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Bahrain NGOs: Normalisation does not lead to peace

September 17, 2020 at 3:00 am

Palestinians protest in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip against Israel’s normalisation deals with Arab countries on 15 September 2020 [SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images]

Seventeen NGOs in Bahrain, along with the General Federation of Workers Trade Unions, have slammed their country’s normalisation deal with Israel, stressing that it does not lead to peace, Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed normalisation deals with Israel on Tuesday in Washington. The deals were brokered by US President Donald Trump, who described them as “historic”.

In a joint statement, the NGOs announced: “We adhere to the constants of the Bahraini people regarding the just Palestinian cause and the provisions of the constitution that criminalise normalisation with the Zionist entity.”

The statement continued: “All forms of normalisation with the Zionist entity initiated by some countries have neither produced peace nor restored the usurped rights of the Palestinian people.”

However, the NGOs emphasised that the deals: “Encouraged the enemy [Israel] to commit more crimes against Palestine and the holy Arab and Muslim sites, foremost of which is holy Jerusalem.”

The statement also disclosed: “What is known as a peace treaty between Bahrain and the Zionist enemy under the auspices of the US administration has brought about tremendous shock, resentment and widespread popular rejection among the Bahraini people, their political forces, civil society institutions and all national actors and personalities.”

READ: Trump marks ‘dawn of a new Middle East’ as Israel, UAE and Bahrain sign ‘peace deals’