Bahraini MP talks peace in virtual sukkah
Jewish people are fully integrated into Bahraini society and are not made to feel different, lawmaker Nancy Khedouri, who represents the Gulf state’s Jewish community in its National Assembly, said on Tuesday.
Khedouri made the remarks on a visit to MK Zvi Hauser’s virtual sukkah, a videoconference between the lawmakers broadcast online less than a month after Israel and Bahrain announced they would normalize ties.
“I feel like the Messiah is coming that we can talk like this,” Hauser said. “These are historic times for our nation.”
Khedouri, the author of a book on the history of Bahrain’s Jewish community, shared some information on the topic.
The community, which currently has about 30 members, arrived from Iraq in 1873 “in search of a better quality of life,” she said. “They contributed to society from generation to generation.”
“Overall, Jewish people were never made to feel different. There was never any segregation... Jewish people were never expelled from Bahrain,” Khedouri said.
Bahrain is also the only Gulf country with an officially
registered synagogue since the 1930s. That synagogue has not been functional for many years, because there are not enough Jewish men for a minyan, and it is currently under renovation.
She credited the “wisdom” of Bahrain’s leaders for the tolerant atmosphere in the Gulf state, and said that Christians, Muslims, Jews, Baha’is, Hindus and Sikhs all live together in the country which has about 1.5 million residents.
Bahrain’s king appointed Khedouri to the Shura Council, the upper house of Bahrain’s National Assembly, in 2010, and reappointed her twice since then. She is the deputy chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security Committee.
When Hauser, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign
Affairs and Defense Committee, asked Khedouri how the average Bahraini sees peace with Israel, Khedouri said Bahrainis “expressed excitement, anticipating the future good that will flow through our countries.”
“Whatever happens is Hashem’s perfect will,” she said, using the word observant Jews often use to refer to God.
Hauser told her that for Israelis, peace with Arab countries “is like a dream come true.... It’s really good news for us.”
The lawmakers also discussed the positive economic impact peace between their countries can have for the welfare of their citizens.
“Once it gets rolling,” Khedouri said, “I have no doubt it will help create many jobs [ and] good welfare to the inhabitants of the Near East
region. We will definitely see a fruitful outcome.”
Asked about other countries in the Middle East who spoke out against Israel’s peace deals with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, Khedouri said: “Please God, with successful results in our country of this accord, I am sure any countries that were against it will look into the matter and see it would also be to their advantage to make peace with Israel and be part of such an important accord, and make history as well.
“The prosperity that will be brought to the region through cooperation between Israel and Arab countries will definitely discourage the influence of any bad or evil or negative influences from other parties or countries in the region,” she added.