Speaking of a taboo could be quite a risk and pure madness in a country governed by tempers that run the political scene. It is where enacting a law restricting freedom of opinion and expression is permissible for the greater sake of protecting the interest of the state.
However, the fear arises that this would end up muzzling liberties and muffling mouths. As for the general tone, it seems that it is not interested in disturbing the moods of the rulers. In the end, they fight for their interests and hold agreements accordingly. The streets will not normalize, under any conditions, with whoever is responsible for its misery and its successive, sterile and chronic crises. They will not accept relations with a water crisis, or medicine shortage, nor the budget crisis nor the government formation crisis. These are the words of Ali al-Hayani, a journalist from Al-Anbar, Iraq. He left his city and is currently living in one of the cities of the Kurdistan region.
Ali is among the few journalists who prefer not to talk about a law that incorporated a previous law in order to evoke additional terror and pose threat to the powerless citizens. Ali told Majalla, “Iraq is experiencing many problems and crises, including the economic situation and the lack of a budget, as well as the delay in forming a government. The Iraqi parliament put these matters aside and was instead preoccupied with voting on a law criminalizing normalization with Israel. We agree that Israel is committing violations and crimes. However, Iraq must step aside in this conflict and distance itself.”
Ali added, “There is actually a law that prevents normalization and bringing it up at the present time is a political bid by the party advocating for the issue. It is also a bid to please a neighboring country, Iran. There used to be Jews in Iraq, few of which remain today, and they are highly respected, as is the case with other religions. Therefore, peaceful coexistence must be preserved. As for the issue of normalization, it is nothing more than a political bid at the expense of the suffering and problems of citizens.”
He continued saying, “The enactment of the law in this form is merely a restriction on freedom of expression. It is the right of any journalist to communicate with any other journalist, institution, or specific entity, to obtain information. This is a well-known matter. For its part, social media has also bridged connecting with friends, regardless of their nationalities. Every Iraqi has the right to communicate with Israel, and not necessarily support or reject relations with it.
The Idea Behind the Law
On April 23, Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrist movement, announced the intention of his bloc and its allies to present a draft proposal to “criminalize” normalization with Israel for a vote in the parliament.
Al-Sadr tweeted then, “One of the most important reasons that prompted me to involve the Sadrist movement in the electoral process again is the issue of normalization and the Israeli ambitions to dominate our beloved Iraq.”
On May 26, in the presence of 275 deputies out of a total of 329 delegates, members of the Iraqi parliament unanimously voted in favor of the proposed law.
According to the text of the law, dubbed “Law Criminalizing Normalization with the Zionist Entity,” it aims to “criminalize all forms of normalization with the occupying Zionist entity that has usurped Palestinian territories,” and “prevent the establishment of diplomatic, political, military, economic, cultural, or any other relations” with this entity.
The House of Representatives had amended the law’s title from “Prohibiting Normalization with the Zionist Entity” to “Criminalizing Normalization.”
On May 30, the Iraqi parliament sent the law to the president for approval. The law will not become effective unless the president ratifies it and sends it for publication in the government gazette within 30 days.
The law indicates that it applies to all Iraqi citizens in the country and abroad, all state institutions, the governments of regions and governorates, the media and social media.
The law includes prohibiting travel to “the territory of the Zionist entity, communicating by any means with it, promoting it or any Zionist ideas or principles, boycotting conferences and events that it organizes, and prohibiting the work of any companies or individuals subject to the Zionist government in Iraq.”
It considers the violation of any of these prohibitions to deal with Israel “a crime punishable by death or life sentence and accusations of high treason would be charged. The penalty is death for the perpetrator of these prohibitions, whether he is the president, his deputies, the parliament speaker, his two deputies, the prime minister or his deputies, member of the House of Representatives, the minister or any official of their rank, the undersecretary of the ministry or any official of his rank, a general manager or any official of his rank.”
The law stresses that the perpetrator of one of the stipulated crimes does not get to benefit from excuses and the mitigating circumstances from the laws on normalization.
The law was approved despite the presence of a clear and explicit text in Article 201 of the Iraqi Penal Code that states that “whoever favors or promotes the principles of Zionism, including Freemasonry, or who is affiliated with any of its institutions or assists them financially or morally, or works in any way to achieve its purposes.”
Iraq does not have any relations with Israel, and the government and most political forces refuse to normalize with it.
Out of 22 Arab countries, six countries, namely Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, have announced normalization of relations with Israel.
Monitoring
Even though the parliament witnessed celebrations after the vote on the law, and videos circulated by Iraqis on social media showed the MPs celebrating the vote, the reactions and comments of Iraqi social media users varied between those who considered the legislation of the law a victory for the resistance, and those who were apprehensive about further restrictions on freedoms.
On the one hand, the leader of the Sadrist movement tweeted, calling on his supporters to take to the streets to celebrate the vote on the law.
Hakim al-Zamili, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, shared a similar sentiment, as he tweeted saying that the law banning normalization received a unanimous vote and represented a true reflection of the people’s will, describing it as the first stance of its kind globally in terms of criminalizing relations with Israel. He also called on Arab and Islamic parliaments to issue similar legislation to meet the aspirations of their people.
As for Qais al-Khazali, Secretary-General of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, he expressed his blessing of the vote, tweeting, “While some Arab governments are racing to normalize with the occupying Zionist entity, here is our distinguished parliament legislating its law in the name of this great people against the usurping entity and against normalization with it.”
As for those opposing the euphoria surrounding victory, the tweets mocked a reality where one is burying his head in the dirt. Firas Elias, a researcher specializing in strategic affairs and international security, tweeted, “As the Iranian ambassador congratulated the Iraqi parliament’s decision to legislate a law criminalizing normalization with Israel, he forgot to mention the Irangate scandal in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq war, through which Iran imported thousands of missiles and weapons from Israel to strike Iraq.”
For his part, Dr. Zaid Abdul-Wahhab al-Azami, an expert on Iraq affairs at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said, “I was hoping that the law criminalizing normalization would include clauses condemning and holding accountable retroactively those parties that agreed and colluded with Zionism and cooperated in occupying Iraq, killing its people and destroying its institutions.”
For his part, Deputy Faeq Sheikh Ali tweeted, “I have not found among the world’s politicians greater than Iraq's. When the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Tel Aviv in 1977, Iraqi leaders launched a campaign against Egypt to isolate it. Iraq was then plunged into wonderful wars!! #What_is_this and today Iraqi leaders have decided to criminalize normalization with Israel!
He added, "Headers points: If you die, you will not be as hostile to Israel as Abu Odai was! ... If you commit suicide, the Palestinians will not go back to revolting against the Zionists ... because they sold the cause in return for shekels! ... No matter what you do, Khamenei will not retaliate against Israel and avenge his dead comrades from outside the corridors of the Iraqi parliament!"
Normalization At Bottom of Iraqi Citizens’ List of Interests
About this state of disparity, writer and political analyst Hilal Al-Obaidi said in an interview with Majalla that some issues in Iraq are classified as trivial issues, including the issue of normalization, most of the local forces, activists, intellectuals and elites.
“Now, another main concern is normalization. There are more important issues related to the daily life of the citizen, related to the future of Iraq, the crisis of forming the government, rebuilding what these parties destroyed during 19 years, of 4 successive governments.”
He added, "Today, there are issues more important than the subject matter which is normalisation and the enactment of the normalization law while neglecting the rest of the laws that concern the citizen, the elites, and the daily life of citizens.”
Al-Obaidi added, “The enactment of the law at this time is a word of truth that is intended to be false. Today, there are urgent needs for important laws in a country where more than a million displaced and internally displaced persons are inside Iraq, and they are here.”
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He pointed out that "the country has been in a state of constant chaos since 2003 and nothing is going right, and then they come to criminalize normalization. This is not what the citizen is looking for. So, today it does not matter much to criminalize the normalization law or others, this is a mixture of papers.”
He added that "the law criminalizing normalization existed even before 2003. So, what happened during the enactment of the law is a showmanship that does not really accuse the citizen, does not satisfy and does not enrich. The country is going through major crises, such as desertification, the water crisis and the economic crisis."
He stressed that the law "was used politically to install some parties, or to intimidate others, and then normalization with whom?
“We do not even have a government so we can normalise ties. Then, this law comes as if it wants to hold people to account and not others, and to direct charges of normalization to some and not others.”
He continued, "The law is not commensurate with the scale of the disaster or the situation in Iraq."
Many have followed the issue, as "the politician or parliamentarian does not want to be pointed to with the finger of accusation. This is the last of their political concerns in Iraq, so everyone supported the law because he does not want to be outside the flock. He does not want to be an anomaly in the Iraqi general situation and does not want to be a reason to bring charges against him and then hold him accountable, imprison him, execute him, etc."
He added, "We know that even the judiciary in Iraq is subject to political wills. That day, these parliaments raced to pass this law to get rid of suspicion or get rid of an accusation. It does not exist in Iraqi political life.”
A Deed of Innocence in Trap of Iranian Blackmail
In addition to what al-Obaidi mentioned, including the goals of the timing of the law’s enactment, it seems that there are direct goals related to Iranian messages to the Iraqi interior to impose more hegemony and consider the adoption of the law a guarantee to satisfy it and will reduce its accusations against the allies of the Sadrist movement, Kurds and Sunnis, that they have relations with Israel.
Consequently, the enactment of the law may lead to the easing of Iranian opposition to the formation of a majority government, and Iran will consider the vote of political blocs accused of establishing relations with Israel, a temporary instrument of innocence, and this is what many observers mentioned. The state and its actions come to acquit the Kurds and Sunnis of the accusation against them not long ago, after voting on this law.
Over the years, many Shiite Islamic parties and armed factions loyal to Iran accused the Kurdistan Regional Government of establishing secret relations with Israel, but officials in the region, as long as they denied the existence of any relationship between Erbil and Tel Aviv, given that the region’s foreign policy passes through the capital of Baghdad.
Iraq does not have official relations with Israel and the absence of any sites used by Israel in the cities of the region, or the presence of any Israeli companies registered with the Ministry of Trade of the Government of Iraqi Kurdistan.
However, in September 2021, tribal figures held a conference entitled "peace" in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, and called for normalizing relations with Israel.
Agence France-Presse quoted Joseph Braude, the American expert of Iraqi Jewish origin and founder of the Peace Communications Center that sponsored the conference, as saying that about 300 figures from Sunnis and Shiites met in Erbil from 6 governorates of Baghdad, Mosul, Salah al-Din, Anbar, Diyala and Babil and discussed the issue of peace with Israel.
The Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq issued arrest warrants for 3 people, including a former deputy, who participated in the conference.
The regional government, for its part, confirmed that "the meeting was held without the knowledge, approval and participation of the regional government, and it does not express in any way the position of the Kurdistan Regional Government, but this justification or argument will not be missed by Iran."
Tehran did not wait long. On March 13, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards targeted the city of Erbil with 12 ballistic missiles, and the Revolutionary Guards adopted the attacks, and said that they targeted what it described as “the strategic center of conspiracy and malicious acts of the Zionists.”
After the attack, al-Sadr and the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani agreed to form a fact-finding committee on the pretext of the presence of Israeli headquarters in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
It is noteworthy that, during the past months, Erbil had previously been subjected to many missile attacks using Grad missiles, and at that time the regional government accused the PMF militias loyal to Tehran of being behind them, with unknown factions claiming responsibility for these attacks.
The Secretary of the Kurdistan Communist Party Kaveh Mahmoud explains the Kurdish point of view on the issue of normalization in an interview with Majalla, stressing that “most of the Christian forces, whether they are leftist forces, non-left forces, or moderate liberal forces, believe in a specific cause, which is the right of the people.” The Palestinian people have the right to exist and to have a state, just as the Israeli people have the right to have a state.”
Mahmoud added, "We must not accept this ideological terrorism based on throwing Israel into the sea...This is kind of blackmail and ideological terrorism, because Israel is a state, and at the same time we also call for the Palestinian people to have their independent national state, and to solve the Palestinian issue a peaceful solution … a democracy built on the basis of two states, and on the basis of international resolutions on this one hand, and on the other hand what is related to the Kurdish issue.
“It is always the problem of the world and the peoples of the world that they ask us for solidarity, and no one sympathizes with us. Solidarity from us, we do not stand in solidarity with them in return for solidarity with us. We are in solidarity with them from a principled position and we do not expect that their position in solidarity with us will be a reaction to our position, afterwards.
“But it is in terms of justice, in terms of human rights, and in terms of peoples’ rights, then if we believe in the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people, and for the Palestinian people to have their own state, and we believe in this, we must also believe in the right of the Kurdistan people, the right to self-determination, and to have their independent national state.”
The former Minister of Culture in the Kurdistan Regional Government said, "There is no interest in the Kurdish streets in this law, or this type of law. The lack of interest does not mean the illegality of the Palestinian cause, but there are many Kurdistan people who participated, not only as regular soldiers in the armies of the countries of the region, but they also participated as guerrillas, and they suffered with the Palestinian movements.
“They were members of the Popular Front and the Democratic Front. The Kurdish liberation movement had struggle relations with the Palestinian movements, and some of the communist supporters, for example, participated in the siege of Beirut in the face of the Israeli occupation of Beirut, and they lost martyrs.”
Cause Trading
He stressed that "the justice of the Palestinian cause exists, but this trade in the cause through this type of laws affects the morale of the people, and the justice of the Palestinian cause necessitates the search for other forms, in order to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and with the justice of their cause.
“I believe such laws only constitute Responding to a specific agenda for certain regional countries, and although many Palestinian factions welcome the enactment of this law and may consider it an achievement, but in fact it is not a form of real support, but rather enters into the calculations or interests of some regional countries only.”
He also explained his opinion about the law, saying: "There is some confusion that causes confusion, there is confusion between the concept of Zionism and the concept of Israel .... Israel has become a state according to international law, and according to United Nations resolutions, and Israel is a member state of the United Nations, and the world recognizes Israel. It is a realistic issue as an international reality, as a political reality, whether we like it or not, it is a reality that exists."
Mahmoud added: "For us, we distinguish between the Zionist movement and other Israeli political forces. There are Israeli political forces that call for peace, and they call for a peaceful, democratic solution to the Palestinian cause on the basis of two states, and therefore dealing with these forces has nothing to do with what is called today the issue of normalization."
Variation of Positions
Between welcome, condemnation and warning, official reactions continued about the enactment of the law, as Iran was quick to welcome, on the lips of the Iranian ambassador to Iraq, Mohamed Kazem Al Sadiq, who blessed the “representatives of the brotherly Iraqi people” for approving a law criminalizing the normalization of relations with Israel.
He indicated in a tweet, that the law "formed a new link that causes pride in the series of proud and courageous stances of the Iraqi people towards the fateful issues of the Islamic nation."
While the Palestinians welcomed the adoption of the law, the head of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattuh, said in a statement that the honorable position "is not strange to Iraq, which is historically known for its political and economic support for the Palestinian people."
Fattuh called on Arab and Islamic parliaments to follow the example of the Iraqi parliament's decision to criminalize normalization with Israel, which practices the "most heinous crimes" against the Palestinian people and their Islamic and Christian lands and sanctities.
The Iraqi parliament's move was also welcomed by other Palestinian factions, most notably the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
On the other hand, the Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned in a statement the decision, considering it to put Iraq and the Iraqi people on the wrong side of "history and in isolation from reality."
The statement stressed that it is the changes in the Middle East, peace agreements, and the normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries that "will bring stability and prosperity to the peoples of the region, but rather the future of the Middle East."
The Israeli Foreign Ministry called on the Iraqi people "not to be drawn into extremist positions."
The US State Department expressed its great concern over the passage of the law, which "endangers freedom of expression and fosters an anti-Semitic environment," according to a statement by spokesman Ned Price.
He said, "The United States is deeply disturbed by the Iraqi parliament's passage of a law criminalizing the normalization of relations with Israel. This law jeopardizes freedom of expression and fosters an anti-Semitic environment, and is in stark contrast to the progress made by Iraq's neighbors by building bridges with Israel and normalizing relations with it."
"The United States will continue its role as a strong and steadfast partner in support of Israel, including through its support for expanding relations with its neighbors in pursuit of greater peace and prosperity for all," he continued.
Today, Friday, the Foreign Affairs spokesman in the British House of Representatives criticized the Iraqi parliament's legislation to criminalize normalization with Israel, calling on his country's government to deter Iraq from this "horrific" law.
The spokesman for Foreign Affairs in the British House of Representatives, David Lammy, said in a press statement seen by Shafak News, "It is incredibly worrying that the Iraqi parliament has passed a law criminalizing and even threatening to kill those who have relations with Israel."
Preoccupied with Details of Incrimination
It seems that the controversy started about the law inside Iraq, and crossed over to the countries of the region and to conflicting international positions, declared and undeclared.
Although Iraq has never recognized Israel since its establishment in 1948, neither Iraqis nor Iraqi companies can visit Israel, and although the new law goes beyond that, especially criminalizing any attempt to normalize relations, but there is still talk in the corridors of Iraqi law and some Shiite factions about the existence of loopholes in the law.
Even calls are sent through the communication platforms and websites affiliated with the loyalists to return it to Parliament and empower it more in the face of any loophole.
It may turn into a channel that passes relations with Israel, as one of the provisions of the law was considered by some to “legitimize” normalization under the name of religious visits, as the law allowed it, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Interior.
Some believe that the law did not clarify how to deal with Arab countries normalizing with Israel despite the demand of some parliamentary political blocs loyal to Iran to add paragraphs that have political consequences on the external level of the state, as they called for a boycott of dealing with Arab printing countries with Israel.
But the law, in its last voted version, neglected to address how Iraq deals with the Arab states that normalize with Israel.
Others believe that the law neglected dual nationals and did not refer to a treatment concerning them, and also in the second article, the law applies to private companies, foreign institutions and investors working in Iraq, as the law did not clarify how to deal with them if they signed long-term work or cooperation contracts and did not specify a mechanism.
It is mentioned in this regard that the original version of the law presented by the Sadrists to Parliament provided for the inclusion of foreign companies operating in Iraq that have relations with Israel, but after discussions this was amended to prevent “the establishment of any official relations or relations With Zionist companies or individuals.”
Isolation Law
Talking about the repercussions of approving the law and the continuation of Iran’s loyalists in the womb of the Iraqi authority, the preoccupation with the details may turn out to be a demonstration movement into a scheme aimed at isolating Iraq and its implications and how it will reflect on Iraq and its foreign relations.
Al-Alusi, the former parliamentarian and founder of the Iraqi Umma Party, said in an interview with Majalla, “There is a main point that I must mention at the beginning. There is the fact that the Iraqi people, in general, Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, go to the ideas of a new Iraq away from war, away from weapons, and far from Islamic or nationalist propositions.”
He noted that 70,000 Iraqis register in an Israeli website in the Arab language and this number terrifies the Islamic parties, and terrifies the owners of other ideas.
“There are messages, conferences, seminars and public talk from politicians and the public, from the Kurds, from the Sunnis, and from the secular Shiites. They talk about the necessity of an independent Iraqi foreign policy far from the hegemony of Iran.”
Al-Alusi added, “These propositions terrify Iran’s followers in Iraq, and this increase in propositions and large numbers terrifies the Wali al-Faqih, and terrifies the militias. That made everyone in the militias, whether Muqtada al-Sadr or others, promote this fabrication, this open terrorism that everyone who communicates with Israel, everyone who goes to a site, everyone who buys goods, every company that has a relationship with Israel - this is terrorism to spill the blood of the Iraqis, and terrorize them to control them, after the Islamists’ control was broken and after they failed in the political system.”
“This new one is one of the most important reasons,” he continued, “The second reason is that there is a reality that Israel, the Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, Qatar and Oman are also going in this direction. There is a reality if it begins to impose itself on the Islamists and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
“Thirdly, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard leads the idea of forming a block, any coalition of its supporters from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Syrian regime and the militias of the Syrian regime to the Iraqi regime and the militias of the Iraqi regime to Tehran. This is an alliance to confront the secular, civil liberal ideas that are creeping and dominating in the Gulf, dominating in other places, and encircling the Iranian regime.
He pointed out that "this law is required to terrorize the public and, most dangerously, terrorize politicians who do not support it," wondering "what will the president of the republic do now if they renew his mandate? He has to give promises that he will legislate this law because without the signature of the President of the Republic, this legislation has no value.”
On the question of whether the law embarrassed both the President of the Republic, Barham Salih and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, especially after their efforts to build bridges of trust, understanding, and economic and political cooperation with Arab countries normalizing ties with Israel, namely Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.
He said, "Iran practices blackmail in the Iraqi presidencies, and therefore the statements were terrifying. The Iraqi presidencies declare that Qassem Soleimani has preference over Iraq... The Revolutionary Guards have preference over Iraq, but in fact he has preference over them and not over Iraq."
“He does not neglect the responsibility of the United States and Britain as both bear responsibility, and there is a moral responsibility and a strategic responsibility in partnership. I repeat, in the Iraqi-American partnership, America must now rise, because we cannot accept a democratic system with democratic mechanisms.”
Iranian Attempts to Blackmail Region
He stressed that there are “clear attempts to isolate Iraq, and Iran with this law. It says to the Emirates, it says to Kuwait, it says to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, we know Iraq is an influential country even if it is broken, affecting the volume of oil exports, the weight of its population, its historical weight, and the Gulf will be reckoned with.”
“The Iraqis want to transcend the Iraqi-Gulf past, now and after the law is passed, Iran says to the Gulf states, Iraq is in my hands, and this monster that threatened Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and threatened the Gulf is in my hands.
“In other words, Iran is now trying to blackmail the region through this alliance, and is blackmailing America and Britain through this alliance of Baghdad, Tehran, Damascus and Beirut.
He stressed, "It is logical, and what is required is the fact that the US and the free Iraqi politicians who represent Iraq act. We represent Iraq. Iraq does not represent those who came with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.“
He noted that the problem "in the Middle East is that there are countries that trade in issues far from their borders in order to control national failure or internal failure. I am surprised by the fact that a law has been enacted criminalizing peace or normalization, but not a law criminalizing 27,000 testimonies within the circles of the four presidencies.
“Stealing public money is not a crime, forging certificates is not a crime, threatening and attempting to assassinate the Prime Minister is not a crime, bombing the Green Zone and Iraqi camps is not a crime, stealing Iraqi army weapons is not a crime.”
“Iran is an aggressive country in the region, and it is the country with the most number of executions. Iran not only oppresses its own people, but even oppresses other peoples, and is trying to control the policy of iron and fire, and therefore it has fabricated and created militias and has fabricated and created arguments in Kurdistan, and in Baghdad.
“The US administration must bring about negotiations in us and the initiation of a regional alliance to control the coming danger and the destabilization coming from ISIS or the Shiite militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.”
It reveals “a great movement among the Iraqi circles, but many of them are now waiting for the countdown to begin, in the direction of arrests, accusations, and blackmailing politicians.
“There has been an exchange of messages during the past few days, talking about Iraqi concern, and that Iraq is not concerned with the state of war declared by the militias and the Revolutionary Guards against Israel.
“We want peace and seek to push the wheel of Iraqi politics towards logic, construction, reconstruction and peace and agreements with Israel,” he said.
He added, “We are now supplying other successful countries while we are unsuccessful. This is the question of the Iraqi citizen and the questions of the Iraqi citizen.”
