Eleven years after the pro-democracy uprising in Pearl Square in 2011, democratic demands, bloodily repressed at the time, have given way to the denunciation of an increasingly tight alliance with Israel.
On February 14, 2011, “Eleven years ago to the day, large sections of the Bahraini population rose up, together with other Arab peoples” in the context of the “Arab Springs”, notes Saeed Al-Shehabi in the Pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi.
A Bahraini journalist living in exile in London, he recounts demonstrations that took place in the Pearl Square in Manama. These were put down in blood the following month, on March 14, 2011, with the support of Saudi and Emirati armored vehicles arriving as reinforcements to support the Sunni monarchy, in a predominantly Shiite country.
Eleven years later, what happened to this mobilization? Bahrain’s regime is still in place, but it has lost the trust of its citizens. […] And since he feels weakened, he relies more on foreign support.”
military agreement
Indeed, “the deep divide” of trust with the population – despite the tightening of ties between the monarchy and the Sunni minority – pushed the leaders to accept the military presence, even today, of the two large and powerful Saudi and Emirati neighbours. But they also started “a policy of rapprochement with Israel”, explique Saeed Al-Shehabi.
This policy resulted in the signing, in September 2020, of normalization agreements between Israel and Bahrain, known as the Abraham Accords, to which the United Arab Emirates are also signatories. Since then, trips by Israeli officials to Bahrain – just like the Emirates – have become almost routine.
The
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Philippe Mischkowsky