Bahraini ambassador defends normalisation of relations with Israel amid Gaza ‘genocide’ calls

Israel’s diplomatic relations with several European nations has deteriorated significantly since the start of the conflict in Gaza. 

Last year, Jerusalem closed it’s embassy in Dublin over what Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described as the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.”

By contrast, it has maintained relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, which only normalised ties with Israel in 2020 through the Abraham Accords.

Asked by the JC why Bahrain had chosen to maintain diplomatic ties with Israel, the ambassador said that maintaining relations gave the Gulf kingdom “leverage”.

“Being at the table gives you a bit of leverage [and] gives you access directly to the government”.

“During the conflict, as the only embassy that was working in Tel Aviv, we were actually a sort of consular section for the whole Middle East that had people living in Israel”.

Bahrain, he said was “doing that on behalf of the whole Middle East and trying to bridge any gap that [it] could”.

The ambassador also spoke proudly about his country’s small Jewish community: “They escaped prosecution in the region and sought refuge in Bahrain... almost 140 years ago ... They have a working synagogue in Bahrain. So the relationship goes deep and far back.”

The event, organised by the Labour Foreign Policy Group, featured a panel discussion with the group’s chair Peymana Assad, veterans minister Louse Sandher-Jones, conflict mediator Gabrielle Rifkind and Labour MP and member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Alex Ballinger.

During the course of the discussion, Ballinger accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza – a position endorsed by the party’s annual conference later yesterday – something the government has said is a matter for courts to determine.

He told the audience: “I think what is going on in Gaza right now meets the conditions for being a genocide, whether or not that really changes the approach the government is taking, I don't know, because we're already seeing with our own eyes the number of war crimes that are being that are being committed”.

The MP for Halesowen in the West Midlands added that although the government hadn’t responded as “quickly as I would like”, he said that its actions – including a partial arms embargo, sanctions on Israeli ministers and recognition of a Palestinian state – were “substantial”.

Using language far more critical than the Bahraini ambassador, Ballinger said that the Foreign Affairs Select Committee had seen “mountains of evidence of war crimes being committed” by the IDF in Gaza.

“As someone that used to be an aid worker and has worked in conflict zones, the way that we have seen Israel target and kill aid workers in that conflict and then try to hide the evidence, the way we're seeing hospitals being targeted”, he added.

In April last year, the IDF apologised for the killing of seven employees of the World Central Kitchen, including three British former armed service personnel.

Then-IDF chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said that: “the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming WCK aid workers. It was a mistake that followed a misidentification—at night during a war in very complex conditions. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals to carry out terrorist action against Israel.

During a raid of the Al Shifa hospital last year, the IDF said it had discovered weapons hidden “in the pillows and beds” of patients in the maternity ward of Al-Shifa, as well as in the ceilings and walls of the compound.

Former hostage Emily Damari detailed how she was taken to the hospital by Hamas terrorists shortly after her abduction.

“As I got to the room, the first thing I saw was a dead body, blood on the floor, and the second thing was 10 or 15 terrorists inside the room, with their guns, and the third thing is that the doctor came to me and said: ‘Hi, I’m Dr Hamas.’

“This is Al-Shifa Hospital that the IDF continues to come back to, and all the news was talking about it, saying: ‘How could they go to these civilian places? To hospitals?’ So, this is the reason,” she said earlier this month.