Rallies in Bahrain || Спецвыпуск 10.10.2021

This is a special program from the ANNA NEWS. I am Constantine Reztsov.

Rallies are being held in Bahrain against the normalization of the relations with Israel, and against the opening of the Israeli embassy in Manama. On Friday the rally was held in the capital of the kingdom. The local police used tear gas and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd of protesters who were heading to the Israeli embassy in downtown Manama to express their outrage at the plan to normalize relations with Israel, and the opening of an Israeli mission in the kingdom.

The protesters waved the national Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The local media reported that the Bahraini police arrested some of the protesters, and took them away in an unknown direction.

Israel opened the embassy on last Thursday, during a visit of the Foreign Israeli Minister, Yair Lapid, to Manama. The event started the anti-Israeli protests in Bahrain. After the visit of the Israeli minister, mass rallies were held all over Bahrain. The protesters held signs on which they expressed their feelings about the normalization of the relations with Israel. They also burned Israeli flags, and chanted slogans against the rule of the Bahraini king, Hamad ibn Isa Al-Khalifa.

Israel and Bahrain established official relations during the last year. However, a high-ranking Israeli official like the Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have arrived in the country for the first time. The main opposition group of Bahrain, the ’Al-Wefak’, and the kingdom’s chief cleric, Sheikh Isa Qassim, have already criticized the move by the Al-Khalifa dynasty.

Bahrain signed a peace pact with Israel together with the UAE during an official ceremony, hosted by the former US President Donald Trump at the White House, during the last September. Later, Sudan and Morocco signed similar agreements with Israel, which was mediated by the USA.

The Palestinians saw the deal as a treacherous back-stab to the Palestinian fighters against the decades of the Jewish occupation. The Palestinians continue to hope to be allowed to establish their independent state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with the capital in East Jerusalem.

The ANNA NEWS follows the events. Stay tuned