Bahrain: NGOs repeat rejection of normalisation with Israel

Bahrain’s National Initiative Against Normalisation with Israel has repeated its rejection of the normalisation agreement signed with the occupation state three years ago, Maan news agency reported on Sunday.

“Israel has not backed down from its brutality; instead, it has escalated its violence against the Palestinian people,” said the initiative. “It has imprisoned them, displaced them, seized their homes and demolished houses over their heads.”

The Bahraini initiative, which represents 27 NGOs, described Israeli violations against Palestinians as “a stark expression of the new racial and Nazi-like fascism” of the state.

In the three years since the deals were signed, it pointed out, “The occupation has intensified its operations, including killings, settlement construction and the influx of more settlers from around the world to occupy Palestinian homes.”

The group said that it considers the normalisation agreement to be a “grave threat to the interests of the Bahraini and Palestinian people, as well as all the sons and daughters of the [Arab] nation.”

It reiterated that the Bahraini people “have unequivocally expressed their rejection of such unjustified concessions that serve the occupation and encourage further killings and oppression of the Palestinian people, providing cover for its crimes.”

Furthermore, it condemned the visit of Israel’s foreign minister to Bahrain on 3 September for the opening of a diplomatic mission in Manama. “This was desecration of Bahrain’s soil and a violation of the principles of the people.”

The NGOs called on the Bahraini government to sever all relations with “the criminal occupying entity in every form.”

Bahrain signed a normalisation agreement with Israel on 15 September, 2020, under the auspices of the then US President Donald Trump. The deal was part of the Abraham Accords.

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