Kuwaiti MP seeks normalisation with Israel

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“I know the motion will not be passed by the parliament, but I want to spite those who have become more royalist than the king,” Nabeel Al Fadhl, an independent lawmaker, said. “Many Arab countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, have relations with Israel. The Palestinians themselves have relations with Israel. Are we better than these countries or are we more Arab or more Muslim than them? We have achieved only losses from boycotting Israel. We have gained nothing and we are losing access to good products,” he said in remarks published by local daily Al Nahar on Sunday.
Kuwait, like most Arab countries, has no diplomatic relations with Israel and the Kuwaiti parliament is set to debate a motion to reinforce the 1964 law that boycotts Israel.
The new draft calls for reinforcing penalties against anyone who has contacts with Israelis, including five year jail terms and KD5,000 fines.
The draft, submitted by six lawmakers, bans, in additional to existing provisions, travel to Israel and contacts with Israeli nationals or entities or their representative in Israel or elsewhere. It also stipulates that no support to any Israeli activity, commercial or otherwise, can be promoted in any print, audio or visual media
“The new draft is nothing but an attempt to outbid others,” Al Fadhl said. “The big question is ‘who told Kuwaitis they were the custodians of pan-Arabism and Islam?’
The Palestinians, the people who are most concerned with the boycott, have relations with Israel. Their leaders sit with Israeli leaders, and several Arab countries have good relations with the Israelis. We must not go against mainstream, and there is a need to have a law that supports normalization with Israel. I will push for that law,” he said.
The lawmaker did not divulge when he plans to file the motion, but he said that it would be “soon.”
Al Fahdl, no stranger to polemics in Kuwait, has waded twice in local controversies in the last three weeks.
In December, he challenged the constitutionality of an article in the Nationality Law that bans the naturalisation of non-Muslims, saying that the condition was a constitutional and legal stigma.
He later provoked a storm of protests when he pushed for the legalization of alcohol in the country, arguing that it was part of the local heritage.
Fellow lawmakers condemned Al Fadhl for his claims amid reports that they would sue him. Kuwait’s parliament banned the sale of alcohol in 1964.

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