Bahrain Shuts Down Event Criticizing Normalization with ‘Israel’

By Staff, MEE

Bahraini authorities shut down an event on the Gulf state's normalizing of ties with the Zionist entity over the weekend, just minutes after it was launched online.

The Bahraini Democratic Youth Society, the event's organizer, said it had received a phone call on Saturday from the security authorities ordering them to stop live-streaming the event, "without discussions".

Hadeel Kamal Eddin, the host, had to interrupt one of the speakers, saying she had just got a phone call from “official bodies” to cancel the event.

Speakers in the event were the Saudi researcher Sultan al-Amer, Omani writer Mohammed al-Shahri, Kuwaiti academic Fahad al-Mutairi, Bahraini journalist Reza Musawi and Haitham Abdo, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP].

The symposium event was planned to discuss the dangers of Gulf states' normalization with the ‘Israeli’ entity and was streamed live on YouTube.

Ibrahim Kamal Eddin, the president of Bahrain's chapter of the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement, said that Bahraini officials “insisted to stop the symposium, saying that we do not have a permit and that foreign and non-local people are participating in it”.

He added that BDS Bahrain, the co-organizer of the symposium, previously held several meetings and events without permits on the topic of boycott and normalization with the ‘Israeli’ occupation entity.

Only two Arab countries, Jordan and Egypt, have signed ‘peace’ treaties with the ‘Israeli’ entity so far.

In June, Bahrain hosted the US-backed so-called "Peace to Prosperity" meeting in Manama, which was focused on the economic side of US President Donald Trump's plan to address the ‘Israel’-Palestine conflict.