Iraq passes bill criminalizing normalization with Israel

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that criminalizes any normalization of ties with Israel, the legislative house announced. 

Following two readings of the bill by the members of parliament, the proposed law was unanimously approved by 275 lawmakers out of the parliament’s 329 members. 

Dubbed “the Banning the Normalization and Establishment of Relations with the Zionist Entity”, the newly-passed law mandates the punishment any person or entity that seeks to normalize or establish ties with Israel in any form or field, according to a copy of the legislation seen by Kurdistan 24. 

In a tweet he shared on Thursday, the populist Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr, who pushed for the legislation, called on people to publicly celebrate the passing of the bill.

Hakim al-Zamili, the first deputy speaker of parliament, said the legislative house continues enacting laws that protect Iraq’s “security”. 

Since the inception of the Abraham Accords signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the fall of 2020, Sadr has warned on numerous occasions against establishing ties with Israel.

Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, Iraq was one of the Middle East’s Arab countries that declared war on it. The two countries never established ties.

Most of Iraq’s Jewish population fled the country in the years following Israel’s creation.