BAHRAIN VIOLATES PROMISE TO BUSH; BOYCOTTS ISRAEL

Bahrain Violates Promise to Bush Administration (LGF)
One of the conditions of the US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement was that Bahrain would eliminate its boycott of Israel. Imagine my surprise to discover they were lying: Bahraini parliament calls to boycott Israel and parley.

At a stormy session held last Tuesday, Bahrain’s parliament called upon the Gulf Arab emirate’s government to cease all contact with Israel and to refrain from attending the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, which it labeled “a waste of time”.

“Most of the parliament is in favor of cutting off any contact with Israel,” Abd-Ali Muhammad Hassan, a member of Bahrain’s Chamber of Deputies, told The Jerusalem Post by phone from Manama. “We are not going to recognize Israel and have any dealings with them until the rights of the Palestinians are achieved,” he said.

At least one of Hassan’s parliamentary colleagues, Jalal Fairooz, already appears to be implementing the decision.

Contacted by the Post, Fairooz said that he refused to be interviewed by a newspaper published in Israel. “I am not willing to speak to a newspaper that is published in the occupied territories,” he said, after which he hung up.