MANAMA (Dispatches) – Bahraini protesters have condemned normalization of diplomatic ties between the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom and the Zionist regime, inauguration of the Al Khalifah regime’s first ambassador to the occupied territories, and exchange of envoys between the Manama and occupying regimes.
People took to the streets on Friday evening to condemn Bahraini authorities’ warming ties with the Zionist regime, chanting slogans such as “Normalization of Relations is Treason” and “We Oppose Normalization.”
The protesters voiced solidarity with jailed political activists, and demanded their immediate release.
Diplomat Eitan Na’eh was nominated on Thursday as the occupying regime’s first ambassador to Bahrain, the same day that Bahrain’s first ambassador to the occupied territories Khaled Yousef al-Jalahmah met with Zionist foreign minister Yair Lapid in the Knesset.
Na’eh was the occupying regime’s first diplomat to take up office in the United Arab Emirates following the latter’s U.S.-brokered normalization deal with the regime last year, serving as chargé d’affairs of the Zionist regime’s embassy in Abu Dhabi.
In July, Lapid announced his intention to nominate Amir Hayek as the regime’s permanent envoy to the UAE.
Bahraini monarch Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifah on June 29 officially appointed the Persian Gulf kingdom’s first ambassador to the occupied territories.
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said Bahrain has actually demonstrated its complicity in crimes committed by the occupying regime against the Palestinians by appointing its first ambassador to the occupied territories.
“The appointment of an ambassador of the Bahraini regime to the Zionist entity reflects its insistence on the national sin that it committed when it signed the normalization agreement with the occupation,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.
Qassem noted that the move represents Bahrain’s “clear support” for the regime’s policies against the Palestinians and its “full complicity” in the crimes committed by Tel Aviv.
Palestinians, who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Al-Quds as its capital, view the deals as a betrayal of their cause.
Demonstrations in Bahrain have been held on a regular basis ever since a popular uprising began in mid-February 2011.
The participants demand that the Al Khalifah regime relinquish power and allow a just system representing all Bahrainis to be established.