Bahrain Mirror: Since a December visit by a delegation from Bahrain to Israel ties have been warming between states that are officially enemies, reported the Middle East Eye (MEE), noting that "they have more in common than it seems".

In an article published on MEE, Bill Law highlighted that on 4 February, Ayoob Kara, the Israeli minister of communications, tweeted a photo of himself and a young man he called "the prince of Bahrain". "I met publicly for the first time in Tel Aviv with Mubarak Al Khalifa, the prince of Bahrain, in order to strengthen the relationship between our two countries," he wrote, adding enthusiastically that he would have the honour of welcoming the young Al Khalifa to Israel's parliament, the Knesset the following day.

Describing the Israeli Minister, Bill Law said that he is a Likud party member, a staunch pro-settlement advocate and a hawk who has advocated pre-emptive bombing strikes on Iran. "Though he is a Druze, some parts of the Israeli media have acclaimed him as ‘the most Zionist non-Jew in the world'. Minister Kara also has a curious fascination for the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain."

"The only difficulty is that the ‘prince' doesn't show up on any Bahraini branch of the extended Al Khalifa family tree. To make matters more awkward, the Israeli foreign ministry had not been informed as is customary when foreign dignitaries make official visits, particularly true of one coming from an Arab country. Nor had the Knesset been told."

Bill Law explained that it may be that the minister had let his guard down after welcoming a delegation from Bahrain in December of last year. "That group, 24 strong, calling itself ‘This is Bahrain', has been on a global junket over the past four years carrying what it calls a message of peace and religious tolerance."

The award winning journalist further stated that ‘This is Bahrain' is the brainchild of the Bahrain Federation of Expatriate Associations or BFEA, founded with the blessing of King Hamad in June 2011 in the aftermath of a pro-democracy movement that was put down with brutal force by his security services.

The Gulf expert went on to say that Bahrain's December visit was seen as a sign of a warming of relations with a Gulf state that does not recognise Israel. The king was reportedly asked if the delegation should visit a state considered an enemy of the Arab world. "Bahraini citizens can go anywhere they want around the world; there are no restrictions on the Bahraini citizens," he is said to have replied.

Bill Law pointed out that this will strike opponents of this authoritarian regime as a bitter irony, as thousands are locked up in the infamous Jaw prison outside the capital Manama and many leading critics including the veteran human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and Sheikh Ali Salman, the leader of the now-banned opposition society Al Wefaq, are in jail. "Others, though not in jail, are prohibited from travelling."

The journalist also stressed that in a further bid to silence all dissent, Bahraini oppositionists are being stripped of their citizenship, noting that since 2011, the Bahraini authorities have revoked the nationality of over 550 people, including at least 150 in 2017 alone.

"Presumably Minister Kara was blissfully unaware of - or unconcerned about - the unsavoury business of repressing citizens calling for peaceful change and making people stateless, at least insofar as it applied to Bahrain. But assuredly he cannot be unaware of what his own government is doing to Palestinians. He is, after all, a passionate supporter of the illegal settlement movement in the West Bank of occupied Palestine."

Comparing both countries, he highlighted that as the Bahrainis continue with their campaign of citizenship-stripping and deportation, the Israelis are caught up with their own campaign of driving people out, but in their case it is African migrants.

Concluding his article, Bill Law said that "under the convenient guise of religious diversity and tolerance, a true meeting of minds then: the apologists of Bahrain and a publicity-seeking Israeli cabinet minister who has contempt for the rights of Palestinians have, it would seem, a great deal in common."

Arabic Version