Iraq’s parliament passed sweeping legislation this week that would expand the crime of normalizing relations with Israel, in a rare show of solidarity amid an eight-month political deadlock.
The legislation, passed on Thursday, goes further than a similar law dating back to 1969 by providing much broader definitions for acts deemed violations. Both the old and new laws consider this a crime punishable by death.
The act makes Iraq a diplomat in the Arab world, where an increasing number of countries are participating in a campaign promoted by the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Iraq cited pro-Muslims and opposition to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories as reasons for its refusal to establish relations with Israel.
Normally, under the Iraqi constitution, the law must be signed by the president. But if he fails to do so, it will take effect within 15 days.
The new law was proposed by influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who won the largest number of seats of any bloc in an October election and has been negotiating for the past eight months to establish government. It was seen as an attempt to shore up the domestic political support of his movement in the drawn-out negotiations.
Hiwa Osman, a political analyst based in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, said: “Sadr is trying to pull the rug from under other people’s feet. He was referring to the rivalry between Mr. Sadr and Iran-backed political factions inside Iraq, which have underscored their opposition to Israel and its strongest ally, the United States.
The UAE, being Sunni Muslims, is the leading regional rival to Shiite Iran. Iraq, unlike most other Arab countries, is predominantly Shiite with many powerful Shiite factions and militias within the government and abroad with close links to Iran.
However, Mr. Sadr is seen as an Iraqi nationalist less tied to Iran than some other Shiite political leaders in the country.
“He’s telling them, ‘You can’t be more patriotic than I am,'” Osman said.
The act poses a dilemma for Iraqi President Barham Salih, who, like any man who would hold the presidency in current political calculations, needs the support of Mr. Sadr and his allies your. Mr. Salih is not expected to sign the bill.
While few Iraqis outside of politics focus on Israel or their own deadlocked congressional intrigues, the legislation has been alarmed by the United States.
The US State Department said it was “deeply disturbed” by the passage of the law, adding it jeopardized freedom of expression.
“I don’t think Iraqi lawmakers are aware of the scope of the international response and the consequences of passing it,” said Farhad Alaaldin, president of the Baghdad-based think-tank, the Iraqi Advisory Council. this law.
It could make American and other foreign companies with business ties to Israel wary of doing business with Iraq.
If enacted as envisioned, the law would make it illegal for Iraqis at home or abroad to engage in social media with Israeli officials or attend conferences of organizations with ties to Israel. legal.
Mr. Alaaldin said a provision aimed at expelling foreign companies and investors in Iraq who were also conducting business with Israel and expropriating their assets in Iraq had been removed from the draft version. even harsher of the bill.
The provisions of the law would also apply to the government of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, which is known to have friendly but not publicly acknowledged relations with the Israeli government.
Even so, Iraq’s deputy speaker of parliament Shakhwan Abdullah, a member of the powerful Kurdistan Democratic Party, voted for the bill as did parliament speaker, a Sunni Arab, Mohammed Halbousi. Mr. Halbousi has traditionally been supported by the UAE, the driving force behind the normalization process with Israel.
The KDP, a close US ally, joined forces earlier this year with Mr Sadr and Mr Halbousi to try to form a new government.
In a sign that the Kurdistan region tacitly accepts Israel, a US research group organized a pro-normalization operation.final participation September in Erbil with the approval of the Kurdish government. The conference brought together Iraqi sheikhs to normalize relations, but instead resulted in death threats and arrest warrants for key Iraqi participants.
A senior US official says the house near Erbil that was hit by an Iranian missile in March is an Israeli intelligence outpost, although a senior Biden administration official has publicly denied the assessment. there.
On Thursday in Baghdad, after the vote, a group of Iraqi parliament members, at least one waving a poster of Mr. Sadr, chanted “Yes to Iraq, no to Israel.” Some chanted “no to America.”
A statement by the Iraqi parliament said the law was passed “unanimously.” Of the 329 members of parliament, 275 showed up for the session.
Contrary to the apparent unanimity of parliament on the anti-normalization measure, Iraq’s conservative parliament has for many years failed to pass a domestic violence law that replaces the existing one, giving men the legal right to method to “punish” their wives. Months have passed in the past sessions without passing important budget laws.
While the two-paragraph anti-normalization law of 1969 also considered promoting relations with Israel a crime punishable by death, the current multi-page version focuses on criminalizing such activities. specific action it sees as encouraging normalized relations with the Israelis and with Israel.
Under current law, the normalization effort would include “communication and contact by any means with the Zionist entity and with its representatives” by an individual, entity or entity located in Iraq during cultural, political, scientific, commercial, economic, media or security spheres.
The law was drafted “to protect the national and Islamic principles in Iraq and the steadfast principles of the Iraqi people in the defense of Palestine and its people as well as all Arab peoples with occupied land,” the law reads.
As Iraqis head into another sweltering summer due to power cuts and other shortages of public services, few citizens focus on normalization with Israel or another recent campaign by Mr. for homosexuality.
“The last thing on the minds of most Iraqis are these issues,” Osman said. “The general public doesn’t like Israel, but to go all out on an issue that’s neither here nor there right now, it’s very strange.”
Nermeen al-Mufti, Falah Hassan and Jaafar al-Waely contributed reporting from Baghdad.
