Hamad Al Khalifa… The dependent normalizer
Hamad Al Khalifa .. The dependent normalizer
The Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa considered that the normalization of his country with the occupation state as a “historic achievement that contributes to the advancement of peace and stability in the Middle East.”
However, peace and stability will never be resolved in the region as long as the occupation continues with its hostile policy, invasion, violation of the rights of the Palestinian people, annexation of Palestinian territories, and displacing its people.
Neither peace nor security will prevail as long as Jerusalem is seized, the Golan Heights is occupied, Gaza is besieged, and the prisons are full of innocent detainees.
Peace and security will only take place once the Palestinian state is established, the return of the refugees and the release of the prisoners.
The King of Bahrain should have concerned with the nation’s urgent matters, such as Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Qatar. Millions of Syrians, Rohengians and Palestinians are suffering and paying the price for the betrayal of their rulers.
This disgraceful agreement is a serious treason against the Palestinian cause. It is of no meaning on the international arena, and there is nothing for Manama to gain from it, be it economic or security benefits.
This move would not direct the attention away from Al Khalifa’s terrible record on human rights violations, especially Shiites and other peaceful opponents. On the contrary, this foolish movement might cause an internal crisis affecting the stability of the king, whose regional and international decisions have always been following the footsteps of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Bahraini King preferred to shift away from the usual Arab position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to support US President Donald Trump in the recent presidential elections, especially as his rival, Joe Biden, showed willingness to calm things with Iran and the possibility of returning to the nuclear agreement.
Now Trump is leaving the Whitehouse and Biden will take over, and the question is: what would the fate of the normalizeing Arab dictatorships be? Who will pay the price for its follies, betrayals, and drift in normalization? Biden would not engage himself in battles to protect Bahrain’s interests from the Iranian threat.
He has pledged to open the file of the Yemen war, which caused unprecedented misery. He is willing to address the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and to hold accountable those responsible for this heinous crime headed by the Saudi Crown Prince. He will deal with the human rights violations in Egypt, as he clearly threatened Trump’s favorite dictator that he will not give free checks for Sisi.
This normalization is not a spur of the moment, but rather a normalization that surfaces from secrecy into the open, as Manama’s has been secretly in contact with Tel Aviv since the nineties of the last century.
As for the public steps, they began to appear since September 2016, when the former Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Al Khalifa praised the Israeli President Shimon Peres after his death. Then in 2017, when an Israeli delegation was allowed to participate in a FIFA conference in Manama, then in May 2018, when the Bahraini Foreign Minister endorsed Israel’s right to “defend itself” after the Israeli occupation army said it had bombed dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria.
In October 2019, representatives from more than 60 countries, including the occupying power, met in Bahrain, to discuss maritime security in the wake of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf and Saudi oil installations, and lastly in 2020, when Bahrain welcomed the sudden Emirati normalization agreement with the Zionist entity on August 13, describing it as a “historic” step.
Also read: Abdul Latif Al-Zayani, Bahrain Minister of Foreign Affairs
