Hamas slammed a group from Bahrain visiting Israel to open dialogue and build bridges between the Arab world and the Jewish State.
The Hamas terror group on Sunday “strongly” condemned an interfaith delegation from the Arab Kingdom of Bahrain visiting Israel, “especially at a time when Israeli occupation continues to commit terrible crimes against humanity and campaigns of racial cleansing against the Palestinian people and their holy places.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum stated that the goodwill mission “demonstrates the total disregard for the anger of the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic nation over Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the so-called Israel.”
The group of 30 people from Bahrain, including Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims, arrived in Israel a few days after President Donald Trump’s historic recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Hamas considered this visit “a crime against our people, just cause and holy places, and a disregard to the feelings of the Muslim and Arabs and to the supporters of the Palestinian cause, and also serves as a green light for the Israeli occupation to continue in perpetrating more crimes and violations against the Palestinian people,” Barhoum stated.
Israel, as “the symbol of terrorism, racism and extremism in the world,” must be “boycotted, isolated and exposed rather than to be visited or praised to beautify its ugly image,” Hamas demanded.
Hamas also called for the “immediate ending to all types of normalization and communication with the Israeli occupation from any party and at any level.”
“We urge for mobilizing all energies of the Islamic and Arab nation to support the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people and their rights and fundamental issues,” the terror group stated.
The organizers of the delegation repeatedly described the trip as nonpolitical. However, the timing comes as Bahrain increasingly looks like the test case for other Gulf Arab nations to evaluate the impact of recognizing Israel.
“The goal here is to multiply the interactions and contacts among people doing similar things in the overall region,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) told The Associated Press on Sunday. “Until now, there was absolutely no chance of having contact.”
The group was welcomed with violence by a Palestinian mob as it attempted to visit the Gaza Strip on Monday.
Dozens of Palestinian activists gathered in front of the Beit Hanoun crossing in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent the Bahraini delegation from entering the Strip, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
The mob torched tires and chanted slogans condemning normalization with Israel.
One activist told Ma’an that they would not allow the delegation to enter and that they would treat them as enemies, while another said he had brought rotten eggs to throw at members of the delegation.
By: United with Israel Staff
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