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Bahrain: Antiquities Authority Admin Ousted Over Affront to Israeli Ambassador

Bahrain: Antiquities Authority Admin Ousted Over Affront to Israeli Ambassador

King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has fired a top official and member of the royal family for refusing to shake the Israeli ambassador’s hand, Arab news outlet Rai al-Youm reports.

Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa was head of Bahrain’s Authority for Culture and Antiquities. She previously served as Bahrain’s first female information minister and as culture minister.

She reportedly refused to shake Israeli Ambassador Eitan Na’eh’s hand last month when the two of them attended a funeral service for the father of the US ambassador, Steven C. Bondy. When she was made aware of Na’eh’s presence at the service, she walked out, asking the US Embassy not to publish pictures that show her in attendance.

The Rai al-Youm report noted conspiratorially that the king’s royal decree naming Sheikha Mai’s replacement at the Authority for Culture and Antiquities, Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, was issued on July 21, while she was on a trip to Albania, and the same day that Bahraini Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the king’s eldest son, spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

The Bahraini government played down the significance of the king’s issuing a pink slip to Sheikha Mai. A government spokesman said in a statement that she “served in government for over 20 years with distinction” and that “side-ranging changes announced this week within a number of government bodies follow on from the largest cabinet reshuffle in the kingdom’s history. Updates to leadership positions within public sector bodies should not be misinterpreted.”

But Hamas apparently didn’t get the memo. Hazem Qasem, a spokesperson for the armed Palestinian group that governs the Gaza Strip hailed Sheikha Mai’s snub of the Israeli envoy as a “true reflection of the Bahraini people’s genuine stance in support of Palestinians” and asserted that all efforts to normalize relations with Israel “remain unacceptable in the collective Arab consciousness.”

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